


Commanding Affection

by shipskicksandgiggles



Series: what if the avengers had brain cells and ca:cw never happened [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate SHIELD, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Asexual Natasha Romanov, Bisexual Steve Rogers, Bisexual Tony Stark, Bucky Barnes Recovering, Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Clint Barton Is a Good Bro, Death Threats, Fuck Canon, Gay Bucky Barnes, Gay Sam Wilson, Gen, Harley Keener is Tony Stark's Adopted Child, M/M, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Not Canon Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Parent Tony Stark, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Search and Rescue Missions, Slow Build, Tony Stark Has Issues, Trans Harley Keener, its called VISION now
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:33:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 24,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26650744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shipskicksandgiggles/pseuds/shipskicksandgiggles
Summary: After the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes is on the run.Tony Stark makes a choice to bring him home, and a promise to the future.Steve Rogers struggles with ever increasing change, but maybe a piece of his past will help.
Relationships: Harley Keener & Tony Stark, James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark, Natasha Romanov & Tony Stark, Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson
Series: what if the avengers had brain cells and ca:cw never happened [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1458838
Comments: 23
Kudos: 82





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hi! so started writing Lucky Break just over a year ago, and as I wrote it, I decided I wanted to write a prequel. between my senior year of high school, and then lockdown, I really struggled to find motivation to write. anyways, I moved about a month ago, and I reopened a bunch of old ideas, and this story called to me.  
> so I present to you: Commanding Affection

“So I saw the data dump.”

“That’s it. I’m moving.” People can’t just keep walking into his apartment like this. First Nick, now-

“Now I know what you’re thinking: ‘Tony, how did you manage to get into my apartment?’ Well if you must ask, I got in the same way Nicky did, though the front door. Steve, you can sit down. This is your apartment you know.”

“Not for long,” he grumbled.

“Oh good! Are you moving to New York? You should move to New York. You’ll be right in the command center of the search and rescue mission for your old best friend, and-” he paused for a moment. “Was he your boyfriend? No one ever confirmed, but y’all were close.”

“Nope. Since when do you say ‘y’all’?”

“Harley.”

“Oh yeah you have a kid. Where is he while you’re here?”

“Kid’s 16, he can take care of himself for a few hours. Now are you coming or not?”

Steve hesitated. Tony clearly knew a lot about what had gone on this week, and things had come to light about the past. About _Tony’s_ past. “Are you sure? You saw the files Nat released. I know some of them included the Winter Soldier files. Ones about-”

“I saw them. I’m working on processing what I saw, but I’m not gonna blame him for the things HYDRA made him do. It hurts that they killed my mom, but you know Howard. Some of the blame is definitely on him.”

“And you’re still willing to help?”

“Yep. Already started working on new prosthetics to help him out once we find him. JARVIS is helping to run scans all over the world so we can try and track him down. You can bring your new boyfriend too if that makes you feel any better about the move.”

He spluttered. “Sam isn’t-”

“Whatever you say, Cap. Wings will be a great addition to the team whether you’re banging him or not. Jet leaves in 20.”

Steve sighed and picked his duffle bag back up. God it had been a long week, and it was only gonna get longer. He might as well pack a few things before Tony inevitably shipped all his stuff to New York. He picked up his phone.

“Hey Sam, I know you just got home, but I’ve got a question for ya…” 

~~~

Now, he imagined the Tower was typically busy with business people running in and out, and scientists doing whatever they do. But this was… a lot. 

Steve found Tony right at the center of it all. 

“What the hell is all this?”

“Cap, you’ve seen my holographic panels before. These ones just got a little upgrade. They’re 3-D now. We’re trying to run facial recognition all over the world to see if we can locate Barnes. Near matches get pinpointed with the little red stars. Took a little creative liberty with it, sorry if that offends you, I can change it if you want, but we’re gonna find him, Steve.”

He gaped at the globe lighting up the room. He barely whispered ‘Thank you’ before he finally broke down. “Thank you Tony.”

~~~

Some people might say Tony had a knack for chaos. Others say he just hates the government. The rest speculate about whether or not he’s just plain crazy.

He refuses to say if any of them are right. 

When New York was attacked by the Chitauri, Tony had easily accessed all the files on the helicarrier. The bug was too easy to plant, and the information revealed was sketchy to say the least. 

So obviously he planted a smaller, less noticeable bug. Nothing that would trip any alarms, but enough that he would be notified if anything worse happened, and he was determined to find out SHIELD’s dirty secrets.

This though? This was so much worse than Tony had bargained for. 

His parent’s death was painful when it happened, and for the first few years after the accident, he had blamed Howard. Assumed he was drunk at the wheel, and that was what had cost his mother her life. Later, he had pulled some strings, and got his hands on the toxicology report from the autopsy. Howard had been _sober_. 

30 some years later, Tony had convinced himself that it really was just an accident. An animal in the road caused him to swerve, maybe he was tired and fell asleep at the wheel. He had finished grieving. It was done. 

Tony was _good_ . He’d fixed his company and let Pepper run the business side of things while he stuck to the mechanics. Fuck, he had reworked his entire _life_. He realized that all the sex and alcohol was an unhealthy coping mechanism, and he got clean. He went to therapy now! Hell, he’d even adopted Harley. 

_Harley_. “JARVIS, where’s my son?”

“ _Asleep on the couch sir. He had wished to wait up for you.”_

He hummed in response. Poor kid. 

Tony took one last look at the chaos around him. He’ll deal with Barnes in the morning. 

“Nat?”

The spy was at his side in an instant. “You okay?”

“Yeah. I’m going to bed. Make sure Steve doesn’t die on us, and keep an eye on this until the night shift takes over. Call Clint if you need backup.”

She nodded and disappeared back into the crowd. 

~~~

“Harley?” Tony whispered walking into the living room. “Hey kiddo, JARVIS said you fell asleep in here.”

“Dad?” Sure enough, Harley was on the couch, just barely awake.

“Hey,” Tony laughed. “You should be in bed.”

“Wanted to say-” Harley yawned, “-goodnight.”

“Okay then. Goodnight buddy.”

“‘Night dad.”

Then Harley promptly fell right back to sleep. Tony sighed. He wasn’t about to let his son fall asleep on the couch. 

However, given the snoring, he knew Harley wasn’t waking up anytime soon. 

_Ugh_. He was getting too old for this. Still, he wasn’t weak. Harley might have been a growing boy, but even teenagers can’t beat Iron Man. He lifted Harley up off the couch and carried him back to his room. With one last kiss on the forehead, Tony left his son for the night, and started planning for the days ahead.

~~~

Natasha walked into the common kitchen early the next morning. “Morning Harley. Have you seen your dad?”

The teenager looked up from his phone. “Honestly, until you asked, I thought he was with you. JARVIS-”

“That won't be necessary.” As if summoned, Tony walked through the doorway. “What do you need, Nattie?”

She scowled. “I hope you had a restful night, Tony. Teams are finally getting organized, but the night shift was rough.”

“For your information, Natasha, I slept like shit. Something about Steve’s Murderbot bestie has me on edge, but I am perfectly fine and ready to go.” He grabbed a travel mug and filled it with coffee. “What happened?”

“I’m not totally sure, but Clint was bored so he came down before I even called, and apparently the people who came in last night wanted to organize themselves differently and there was almost a small mutiny. Unclear on anything but the important details, you can ask him later.”

“Noted. Sounds super fun. How’s Steve holding up?”

“Passed out on us around 3am. I had Sam carry him to a guest room.”

“Wings? Good, glad he’s on board. I assume Spangles is still out though.”

Nat snorted. “No doubt. That last mission almost killed all of us, and I’m surprised he’s not worse off than he is.”

“He’s a super soldier.”

“Yeah, but how would you feel if Rhodey tried to kill you?”

Tony paused. “Fair enough.” He refilled his coffee. “Alrighty then, let’s go find this son of a bitch.”

“Can I help?” Harley piped up. “I feel useless up here.”

Nat and Tony exchanged a look. “Fine,” Tony said. “You can start when Steve and Sam wake up. Make sure they’re okay, then you can help us coordinate downstairs.” 

Harley let out a short whoop and raced off to his room, presumably to get ready.

“What about Abby?” Nat asked. “Does she not want to be involved?”

“Oh no she’s involved. She’s shadowing Pepper’s strategy sessions today. The press is going nuts, and she’s going to be right at the epicenter. The goal is to have Abby take over for her one day, so this is great experience for her.”

She nodded. “Ready to go?”

Tony topped off his cup with a little more coffee and took a deep breath. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

~~~

“Wait, Nat?”

“What Tony?”

“You were on that last mission with Steve and Sam.”

“Yep.”

“What’s up with them?”

“No idea, but the sexual tension is off the charts man.”

A snort. “Good for Cap.”

~~~

Stark Tower was never quiet. Tony hadn’t really set hours for anyone, so people came and went at every time of the day and night. Now, there were more people who had more structure, and he was in charge of all of them. 

He surveyed the crowd and sighed. He had to climb up on one of the control panels just to be seen. “Listen up everyone!” he shouted. JARVIS picked up on his voice and helped project his voice so everyone could hear. “We need to be prepared for anything all the time. Make sure you’re aware of where your teams are, and wait for orders.” 

A murmur went through the crowd. “I know! I know this is a lot, but keep up and you’ll be just fine,” Tony said. “First off all, pilots are reporting to Clint Barton.” 

The man dropped from the ceiling to stand next to Tony and wave. “If you can’t find me, look up.” Laughter strung up from parts of the group. “Seriously though, make sure you’re always ready to go. Stay hydrated, don’t forget to eat, and take care of yourselves. If we need to go, you’ve gotta be on the jump, clear?” 

There was a short ‘Clear!’ that came from the group of pilots, and Clint shot back into the ceiling. 

“Okay!” Tony clapped. “Covert intelligence sector and drop teams, please report to Natasha Romanov.”

Nat drew attention to herself with the loudest taxi whistle any of them had ever heard. “Listen up fuckers!” She was standing on another console. “We used to hear about the Winter Soldier as a ghost story. A legend too horrific to be true. I’ve seen him in action too many times to deny his skill. Listen for whispers of a man too quiet for his size, check into old locations he’s been. No one knows where his base might be, so try places he’s been to more than once, anything that might be familiar to him. Drop teams will go in once we have a positive ID, so stay alert and be ready to go. Don’t underestimate him if you get too close. You have your group assignments and your plane code. If you have questions, say my name and I’ll be there.”

Before anyone could say anything, Tony piped back up. “If worst comes to worst, we have Colonel James Rhodes on standby to get authorization for the army to detain him. However, we do not think we will need them unless this goes very sideways.” 

Uneasy noises broke out over the room, but Tony spotted Harley across the room where he had walked in with Steve and Sam, and tried to bring everyone back to attention. “Tech nerds, direct your attention to the kid.”

Harley smiled and found his own table to be visible. “Tech support, we need you to keep the Internet speed going as fast as you can all the time. We have access to every public camera across the planet, and we need to be running facial rec on everyone. The best way to pinpoint a location is to get a positive ID on him before we send anyone in.” There were some nods. He took a breath. “Now this won’t be as easy as it seems. The Winter Soldier has been killing undetected for 50 years, so he will probably avoid cameras. They call him a ghost for a reason. Try your best to even get a partial match, and we’ll go from there. I’ll be bouncing around, so grab me if you need me.”

“Now, we do have two teams on medical. Sam Wilson,” Tony gestured for the man to step up, “will be working on strategies to stabilize Barnes’ mental health and manage his triggers once he is retrieved.”

Sam raised his hand. “It will be likely that since he is technically a combat veteran, loud noises and sudden movements will cause him to panic, and then either lash out and/or run away,” he said. “I’d like to go over the specific trigger words with some specialists, possibly even some cognitive behavioral therapists, just to be prepared. Barnes isn’t friendly, and I’m not sure anyone would be comfortable with those words bouncing around his head.”

“Got it. I’ll make some calls to make sure we have the full support staff you need,” Tony said. He turned back to the crowd. “For the physical side of the medical team, Helen Cho is coordinating with Bruce Banner on his physical well being in terms of the modified serum and general health and injury reports. There will also be notes for the prosthetic team as the arm is developed. Both doctors are already in medbay’s lab, so those of you who need to can report to them. Wilson’s team can take conference room C.” 

“Lastly, I’m working with R&D on potential prosthetics. I have some rough specs drawn up for Barnes’ arm since it’s a special design, but Stark Industries is taking this as an opportunity to break into the prosthetics industry as a whole, so get to work in your usual lab, and once your current projects are completed, start your research and make some models. I trust you.” 

Once he was satisfied his message was across, he spoke back up. “Now before I forget, your locations.” Tony pulled up a list. “Pilots, make your way to hangar bays A-D. Covert Intel, your base is conference room B, but you have no obligation to stay there. Techies, you have your lab, R&D you have yours. Wilson’s crew is in conference room C, and Cho and Banner’s team head up to medbay. Clear?”

A few assorted yes’s went through the room, and Tony was prepared to wrap this up. Suddenly, he felt someone nudge his shoe. 

Steve. 

Tony held out his hand, and Steve climbed up next to him. A hush went over the room. 

“James Buchanan Barnes was a war hero.” Steve cleared his throat. “He was one of the Howling Commandos, the only one who- who lost his life. He didn’t enlist in the army. He was drafted, but he was no less proud to serve. He fought by my side with honor until he fell from that train.

“Bucky Barnes was my best friend in the entire world back in the 40s. He pulled me out of more fights than you could even imagine. It’s how we met.” He let out a strangled laugh. “He saved my life a hundred times over before World War II. Bucky was a good man with a good heart and an even better head on his shoulders.

“Whoever this is, he isn’t my friend. The Winter Soldier may have his face, but he doesn’t have his kindness, his spirit, or any of the things that made Bucky the man he was. I recognize that I might never get that version of Bucky back, but we need to try. For his ma, his sister, and for anyone who knew what a good man Buck was. Please. Help me rescue him.”

The room was dead silent. Sam helped Steve back down, and Tony told him to take him upstairs, and that he’d be there in a minute.

He turned back to the room. “You heard the man. Let’s go find Barnes.” He clapped his hands and jumped off the command center table he was standing on. 

Time to go to work.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Patience is wearing thin at the tower, but no hope is lost in bringing James Barnes home. Sam juggles the health of his team along side his feelings, and Harley tries the same in his own way. They can only hope to prevent casualties as chaos breaks out in the middle of the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha fuckers it's barely past midnight I'm counting this as a win. school went online for a couple weeks so I literally forgot to write until two days ago, so the fact that this chapter got done at all is incredible. thanks for all the love on the first chapter!!! it means a lot, and I'm very proud of where I'm taking this

It became a waiting game. 

Days turned into weeks turned into months, and they had nothing on Barnes. 

It wasn’t like they weren’t trying either. Teams had started branching out all over the world. They had pilots willing to fly out from SI’s partner locations, and intelligence teams were now reporting from 15 different countries. 

Sam dropped onto the couch next to Steve, who barely looked up from the tablet in his hands. “Hey,” he said. 

“Hi.” Steve didn’t look at him. 

“Steve.” 

Nothing.

“Steve.”

A grunt.

“Steven Grant Rogers, will you at least look at me?”

Steve looked up. “What do you want?” he asked. 

Sam sighed. “You’re making yourself sick. Take a break.”

“We have to find Bucky.”

“Yeah man, I know. Staring at your tablet isn’t going to make him magically appear, although I’m scared you’re about to develop some scary ass laser vision if you aren’t careful.”

Now it was Steve’s turn to sigh. He put the StarkPad down. “I don’t know what to do, Sam. I want to help, but everyone says I’m too close to this, and that all I can do is wait. I’m sick of waiting.” He was so frustrated, he started to cry. 

“Woah, hey now.” Sam reached over and started rubbing circles into his shoulder. “When was the last time you ate something? Had any water? Steve, please tell me you’ve slept recently.”

Steve paused for a second too long. 

“Oh hell no.” Sam got up and walked towards the kitchen. “Get up. I’m making you food. Leave all electronic devices on the coffee table, because I think we need to talk. What do you want?”

He trudged into the kitchen and sat down at the breakfast bar. “Can you just make eggs?”

“I’d make you a whole 12 course meal if you asked me too,” Sam told him. “Yes I will make you eggs. Scrambled?”

Steve nodded. 

“Do you want the same thing I made you back in D.C.?

He nodded again. The poor guy looked absolutely miserable. 

Sam filled a glass with water. “Drink this. You won’t feel as shitty.”

After a few minutes of silence, the only sounds filling the air being the sizzle of eggs and bacon on the stovetop, Steve spoke up. 

“I’m sorry.”

“What for?”

“I don’t know. Bein’ useless I guess.”

“Steve, you’re not useless. You’re the reason we know he’s alive, remember?” He slid the assembled plate across the counter. “Just because you can’t be there in any official capacity doesn’t mean you’re useless.” 

He just shrugged like he clearly didn’t believe him. 

“I’m not kidding dude. You inspired the whole crowd on the first day. I heard a rumor someone even recorded it and watches it whenever they need a reminder of what, of _who_ , they’re fighting for.” This was a fact. Sam had the guy send him the video so he could watch it too. He hadn’t seen Steve emotionally vulnerable in the short time he had known him, and it helped gauge the relationship he had with Bucky. Once they brought him in, Sam knew that both men would struggle with the past, and he needed to be prepared for what that might entail. “Tell me about Bucky. How did you meet?”

Steve smiled, a rare sight as of late. “I was in first grade. Some guy was pullin’ a girl’s pigtails, and I got mad. So obviously my 40lbs when soakin’ wet ass tried to get him to stop, and it turned into a brawl. Bucky pulled me out. He was a second grader at the time, and he scared the other kid off. Naturally that’s when I had an asthma attack and he had to bring me inside, but we ended up finding out we lived in the same neighborhood, and we kinda stuck together after that.” 

“Is that so?” Sam teases.

“Shut up. I know about the rumors, you know. He was my brother more than anything, and I love him, but it was never like that.”

“You know I’m joking man. I don’t care if you were into the guy or not. I care that you care about him, and I want to help you get him back.”

Steve smiled. Sam could see the exhaustion in his face from across the kitchen. 

“However,” Sam scolded, “I can’t help you unless you help me. You need to sleep Steve.”

He rolled his eyes. 

“And I’m going to walk _with you_ just to make sure you don’t smuggle anything to track Bucky on with you. And I’m going to tell JARVIS to not let you have anything either. Hear that!” he shouted at the ceiling. 

“ _Loud and clear sir,”_ came the voice of the AI. _“On my honor, the Captain will not hear anything until morning.”_

Steve laughed, bright and beautiful. “Fine! Fine. I’ll sleep.”

As promised, Sam rode with him up to his floor. “Will you be okay?” he asked. 

“I think so, thanks to you.”

The elevator opened, and Steve turned to him. He looked as if he were about to say something, but he seemed to decide against it. Instead, Steve opted to hug him. ”Goodnight Sam.” Steve released him and walked out onto his floor and into his bedroom, with just one last smile as the elevator doors closed behind him. 

Before he could allow himself to dwell on whatever _that_ was, Sam took a deep breath and pushed the button to go back to the common floor. It really was late, but he was determined to finish cleaning the kitchen before turning in. 

Nat greeted him as the doors opened. “Where’s Steve?” she asked in lieu of a hello.

“Asleep hopefully. God knows when the last time he did that was.”

She nodded. “You’re good for him.”

Sam paused. “Thanks?”

“You’re welcome. I won’t wake him though, he needs the rest.”

“Why would you wake him? Is everything okay?”

“We think we found Barnes.”

~~~

Harley had been through busy days and late nights. He never expected to have to go through both at the same time. 

He’d been the first to know. A techie had gotten a hit somewhere near the capital of Belarus, and called Harley over to check it out. 

_Barnes._

He hadn’t even realized he had taken off running before Nat had clotheslined him, and he was staring at the ceiling, winded. Once the shock wore off, Harley started babbling about the facial recognition tech, needed to find her and Clint, and “Steve! We need to tell Steve!”

Next thing anyone knew, Natasha was also sprinting across Stark Tower at full speed. She grabbed Clint and radioed someone, and took off towards the elevator. Clint shot up the stairs, because apparently the elevators were too slow for his taste. 

~~~

“Kid, you have to breathe for me.”

Harley finally came down enough to hear his dad’s voice. 

“Harley, you’re having a panic attack. Talk to me _bambino_.”

He sucked in a deep breath. Tony was kneeling in front of him, a look of concern plastered on his face.

“What happened?” Harley knew his voice was hoarse. His chest hurt like a bitch. 

“Your team found Barnes. I guess you tore out to look for Nat and I, but you scared the shit out of her and she took you down. You were barely coherent, we weren’t sure if it was panic or excitement, but Nat radioed me after she took off to find her team.”

Harley shot up. “Did anyone tell Steve?”

Tony pulled up a chair and made him sit down. “Steve’s asleep, but we told Sam. He’ll handle it when Cap wakes up.”

He nodded slowly. “What’ll happen now?” he asked.

“We wait. The Quinjets have already taken off, and we’ll hear from them once they have eyes on him. After that, we just have to see whether or not he comes in willingly.”

“Okay.” Harley considered this as his breathing slowed. “Are you ok?”

Tony started laughing.

“Dad, I’m serious!”

“I know you are kiddo, but that’s cute coming from the 16 year old who just got laid-out by a 5-foot nothing assassin.”

“Dad…”

He sighed. “I’m fine, _bambino_. Knowing what I know has made it difficult to come to terms with him, but I care about this team. I know it wasn’t his fault. Hell, I went through the grieving process 30 years ago anyways. This is a lot, but I’ve worked through it. I’m _working_ through it, I guess. I’m well and prepared to help Barnes in any way he needs. Pepper even helped sort out all the legal bullshit. Let’s focus on getting him home before we psychoanalyze me though, okay.”

“Fine.” He knew it was probably stupid to worry, but he couldn’t help it. Even now, his dad looked like he had aged 10 years in as many minutes. “I just want to make sure you’re okay,” he said.

“I know _bambino_.” Tony kissed the top of his head. “I know.”

~~~

No one slept. In order to stay calm, most Avengers remaining in the building had migrated to the common floor. Bruce had made tea to try and calm their nerves, but every hour on the hour, Nat and Clint gave status reports, and 5 hours later, they were about to touch down near the outskirts of the city of Minsk. 

5 and a half hours before, Sam Wilson had finally gotten Steve Rogers into bed, and not moments later had he found out that James Buchanan Barnes had been found. 

Reasonably, he should be relieved. Ecstatic even. They’d all been preparing for this exact moment for months. 

But he was too anxious to care. Steve was… fragile. When they had met in D.C. 7 months ago, Steve had no healthy coping mechanisms, and held onto a lot of what he had experienced before the ice. Since being at the Tower, Sam had convinced him to talk to one of the therapists he was working with (“Steve, I’m your friend. I can’t take you on as a patient in good conscience”), and sure he still had bad days, but this was…

Sam tried to shake his thoughts. Steve’s past coming to him was going to be ugly, but nothing they couldn’t handle. Yesterday had been a bad day. Today doesn’t have to be. 

The radio crackled. “ _We have eyes on an abandoned house outside the city,”_ came Clint’s disembodied voice. “ _Seems as good a place as any for Barnes to hide out.”_

Nat’s voice came next. “ _Copy that. Spread out around the perimeter with your men. We’re not ambushing him.”_

_“Copy,”_ replied Clint _. “How are we doing this?”_

_“How do you feel about knocking on his door?”_

They heard a snort. “ _Just friendly neighbors making a housecall_.”

Bruce let out a soft chuckle. 

“What’s so funny?” Harley asked.

“Nothing,” Bruce told him. “Just reminds me of how Nat brought me in all those years ago.”

Tony laughed. “I guess it is similar huh? At least she gave Barnes home turf advantage.”

“Yeah. Still has snipers covering every potential exit though.”

“She won’t use them.” Sam was startled at his own conviction. He’d gone over the entrance strategy with her so many times, he had it memorized. “She’s gonna be able to talk him down. He might be scared, but it’s nothing she can’t handle.”

Sam hoped he was right. 

What felt like an eternity later, Clint radioed in. “ _We got him. No force necessary. Someone tell Cap we’re bringing his boy home.”_

The tension broke instantly. Cheers came from the entire team, and Sam felt like he couldn’t stop smiling. 

T-minus 5 hours until James Barnes would be in New York. And Steve Rogers had yet to know.

~~~

3 and a half hours later, Sam threw open Steve’s curtains in an attempt to wake him up. “Rise and shine, sweetheart! Today’s a new day, and we have much to be done!” 

It was all he could do to keep from whistling. 

Steve groaned. “How long was I out?”

“Around 8 hours. You needed it man.”

He squinted up at Sam. “You’re in an uncharacteristically good mood,” he observed. “Did Tony fall down the stairs again?”

Sam laughed. “No, but Harley got clotheslined by Natasha. I wish I could have been there in person, but the footage JARVIS got is hilarious.”

“Harley got clotheslined?”

“JARVIS, show him.”

The AI popped up the feed of the event on Steve’s TV screen. Once Harley had recovered, everyone had to admit that it was the funniest thing in the world to watch a 5’6 teenage boy get flattened by a 5’0 woman. Even Steve laughed. “Is he okay?”

“Yeah. Knocked the wind out of him at the time, but he’s good now.”

Sam had started tidying up around Steve’s room. A few moments went by before Steve said anything else.

“Why was Harley running anyways?” he asked.

“Oh, didn’t I tell you? We found your boy.”

Later, Sam would still not be able to process what happened next. He remembers yelling (“What the fuck Sam! Why didn’t you say that when you came in!”), a flurry of movement as Steve practically hurtled out of bed to get ready, rapid fire questions, (“Were they able to bring him in? Is he okay? When can I see him? Is he even here?” to which the answers were “Yes, as far as I know, and the jets fly in an hour or so. We’re meeting in hangar C to welcome him.”), and as Steve sprinted out of the room, he grabbed Sam and kissed the everloving fuck out of him.

It was a lot to say the least.

So much even, that Sam hadn’t moved from that spot in about a minute and a half. 

“Sam?” Steve came running back in. “C’mon, he’s gonna be here soon! We gotta go!” He paused. “Are you okay?”

_Fuck_ he was cute when he was concerned. “Anyone ever told you that you’re a human tornado, Rogers?” He shook himself loose from the shock. “Jesus man. Everyone’s meeting on the common floor. We want to meet him as a team.”

Steve nodded. “Then let's go,” he said. “I want to be there as soon as possible.”

Sam rolled his eyes and walked towards the elevator. “I know you do, Steve. I know you do.”

~~~

One hour and a fuckton of chaos later, the Avengers + Harley were standing in the designated hangar. The jet had landed moments prior, and the doors were set to open at any second to reveal Natasha, Clint, and Barnes. 

Natasha had sent a message from the cockpit of the jet to tell them Barnes had come without a fight. “Without a _word_ ,” she had said. It was a little creepy, but she took it as a win. Still, communication might be an issue, and no one knew what to expect. 

There was a hissing sound, and the ramp descended. Clint walked out first, looking at whoever was behind him. 

Slowly, another man came into view. It was Barnes. 

He looked like he was trying to make himself half his size. Nat walked behind him, whispering encouragement along the way, but he looked… scared. 

Scattered. 

It took everything to keep Steve from running forward. It would have spooked Barnes, or at the very least overwhelmed him, and no one needed that, so Sam kept a hand on Steve’s shoulder. 

Still, it was hard to watch Steve deal with his emotions. It was clear he wanted to run and hug Bucky, or cry.

Probably mostly cry. 

However, Sam couldn’t stop him from talking.

“Bucky?”

Barnes whipped his head towards the nickname. He looked blankly at Steve, clearly wishing he could retreat.

The whole team was silent. No one knew how to handle this.

Harley stepped forward. 

Tony made a move to pull him back, but Harley shook him off and turned to the rest of the team. 

“He knows all of you,” he said. “Steve, Sam, and Nat were the ones fighting him in D.C. all those months ago. Clint is Clint, and I’m not sure that he’ll respond well to anything he tries. Dad, you bear pieces of resemblance to your parents. I might be the only person here he has no connection to. Just let me try this okay?”

They all acquiesced, and Harley walked up to Barnes, stopping maybe 10 feet away from the man. 

“Mr. Barnes?” Harley started. “Mr. Barnes, my name is Harley. Do you know where you are?”

The man nodded. Harley continued. 

“Sir, we’re here to help you. All of us.” He gestured at the team. “We won’t hurt you, you just have to trust us, okay?”

Barnes nodded again.

Harley held out his hand. Barnes moved forward slowly and took it. He looked terrified of the child in front of him. 

“See? I’m not going to hurt you,” Harley reassured him. 

Suddenly, Barnes sank to the floor, tears streaming down his face. “Thank you, мой ребенок. Thank you.”

Harley knelt down with him. No one moved, for fear of disturbing the moment. It was surreal to watch the teenager comfort a super soldier, but it still felt delicate. 

“Are you ready to meet the team?” they heard Harley ask.

They also heard a soft ‘yes,’ and Harley stood, holding his hand out to help Barnes up.

And so, for the first time in 70 years, James Barnes was introduced as a man instead of a soldier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)  
> come yell at me at [playboyphilanthro-pissed](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/playboyphilanthro-pissed)  
> on tumblr


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The introduction of James Barnes into the Tower goes over much smoother than they could have imagined. Steve however, feels as if something is missing, and Tony struggled against his past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hooo boy so it's 2am I cannot account for mistakes but I'm late to posting as it is please just deal with it. this chapter was a lot of fun to write

Tony is enough of an adult to face his issues. The therapy Pepper and Bruce made him go through helped a lot. It’s helped a lot more than he’s willing to admit in recent weeks, but he can’t ignore the fact that Harley spending this much time with Barnes is making him extremely uncomfortable. 

It’s not unreasonable.

HYDRA had used Barnes to take everything from him. His mom was one of the only constants in his life, and her life had ended in his hands. Jarvis, the human one, not the AI, was also killed in that crash. 

No one talked about the chauffeur who had been another unfortunate casualty in Howard’s line of work. 

Tony had lost the two most important people in his life on that cold December night, so sue him if he didn’t want Winter to take his son too. 

But that was the thing. Barnes wasn’t HYDRA anymore. No one was pulling his strings anymore. 

And he’d taken a shine to Harley. 

It made sense honestly. Harley was the least threatening of everyone in their little group. He was small and comforting. Tony had adopted Harley with his fair share of trauma, and 5 years wasn’t long enough to forget a life of prejudice. 

They responded well to each other, which was good. Barnes was adapting just fine to life in New York. He didn’t talk much, but he didn’t shy away from everyone either. Harley helped him get from place to place at first, and even after Barnes learned the lay of the land, Harley would still hang around him. 

Sam and Natasha were mystified by it as well, as Tony later found out. 

“It’s strange to see him to calm around Harley,” Sam had mentioned. “Barnes doesn’t seem to be scared of him.”

“He is just a kid, Sam,” Nat had thrown back. “Not all of us are superheroes. I’m more shocked to see Harley handling this so well.” 

At that moment, ‘this’ had been Harley holding out his hand before reaching out to give Barnes a pat on the shoulder. He was gentle with him.

Maybe it wasn’t difficult for Harley afterall. 

~~~

After the dust had settled from bringing Bucky in, Steve decided to give him space. He had no idea what Bucky remembered, and he didn’t want to hurt him by trying to bring back the past. If Steve wasn’t the same man he was 70 years ago, there’s no way in hell Bucky is. 

However, he had no idea why Sam was avoiding him. The first few days, Steve had figured that he would be busy trying to help Barnes get comfortable and into therapy. Sam wasn’t directly helping him, but he was still overseeing the people who did. His days were bound to be a little hectic. 

Still, it had been a few weeks. Sam had started leaving rooms whenever he noticed Steve, and it… it kind of hurt. 

This meant his only friends since that day had been Nat, Tony, and Bruce. 

Steve was tired. Last week, he’d been subjected to the weirdest science arguments he’s ever heard in his life, and he had vowed to never willingly walk into the chemistry lab ever again. 

Anyways, he misses Sam. Like a lot. And he just wanted to know what was going on. 

“Hey, JARVIS?” he started. “Is Sam available right now?”

“ _Yes Captain,”_ came the reply. “ _He appears to be in the common kitchen with Agent Romanov, young Mr. Keener, and the Sergeant.”_

Steve hummed in response, already halfway out the door on his way to the common floor. He only hoped that Sam wouldn’t leave this time. 

The second he walked out of the elevator, Sam turned and saw him. Steve smiled, heart fluttering a little in his chest just seeing him. 

Huh. What do you know?

He made his way over to the little group. “Are those cookies?”

“Yes they are, and don’t you _dare_ touch them just yet you absolute heathen. Jamie gets first dibs.” Nat stood protectively near the oven, as if she could fend off Steve grabbing a cookie. 

Actually no she could. She totally could. 

Steve backed away and sat next to Sam instead. “So what inspired Nat to start baking again?”

Sam snorted. “Made the mistake of saying her only talents were in the field, and that she was lucky she was surrounded by people who care enough about her wellbeing to keep her not-so-secret sweet tooth satiated.”

“Oh that’ll do it, yeah.” It had been too long since he’d heard Sam’s voice, and he already felt lighter. 

Suddenly Sam got up. “Look I have to get down to Bruce’s lab, but I’ll catch you guys later okay?”

Steve hoped his disappointment didn’t show. “Yeah sure,” he said. 

He watched Sam leave before turning back to the rest of the group where 3 sets of eyes were staring at him. “What?”

“What’s up with you two?” Nat narrowed her eyes at him. “Did you hurt him? Steve, I swear to fuck if you hurt him-”

“Nattie, there is a child at the table. Please use appropriate language. Now who did Steve presumably hurt?” Tony tried getting past Nat to get a cookie, but to no avail. “And who questioned Nat’s skills in the kitchen, dear Lord.”

“The answer to both of those questions is Sam, dad,” Harley answered. 

“Lovers quarrel, Cap?” Tony asked sympathetically. “He deserves better.”

Steve sighed. “We’re not together Tony. He’s been avoiding me for weeks and I don’t know why.” 

Nat stared at him warily. “Do you know when it started?”

“Right when you all got back from Belarus, why?”

“Oh fuck.”

“Nat!”

“Sorry Tones. I know why he’s been doing that.”

“You do?” Steve asked. 

“Okay, just do me a favor and run through the events from the morning we brought James in.”

Steve thought for a second. “It was the day after he forced me to go to sleep. I passed out for 8 hours, and he came in to wake me up. He threw open the curtains and he seemed happy. Once I woke up, he kept being cheerful and had JARVIS show me the video of you hitting Harley in the chest.” Harley grumbled a little while Steve paused. “I asked why he was running, and that’s when he told me that you found B-James.” He cleared his throat. “I don’t remember much after that other than panic.”

Natasha sighed and sat down across from him. “Steve, I’m asking you to do this for your own good. Focus. What. Happened.”

He closed his eyes. “I remember needing to get dressed as fast as possible. I wanted to get out of the room. I asked him a bunch of questions. I was so happy I felt like I could…” he trailed off. “Did I-” he paused. “Did I kiss him?”

Nat stared at him like he’d grown a third eye. “Steve, what the fuck? How do you just-” she started sputtering, seemingly unable to finish her sentence. 

“You always were an idiot, punk. Can’t believe you managed to fuck it up so much with Wilson though. Serves you right,” Bucky told him. 

Before Tony could launch into another rant about using language in front of his child, Steve slipped off his seat and ran for the elevators. 

He sent off a quick text to Sam. _I think we need to talk_. 

~~~

“I’ll never understand how he has no brain,” Barnes said after Steve had gone. “Seriously, everything about him grew with the serum or whatever, and he can’t think for shit.”

“Barnes, keep swearing around my kid and I’ll kick you out.” 

Harley raised an eyebrow. “Dad, I’m 16.”

“Don’t care kiddo.” He directed his attention to Nat. “Are the cookies done yet?”

“Nope, and you’ll be lucky if you get any if you keep up your attitude. Don’t you have work to do?”

“I do actually, that’s why I’m up here. Barnes, I’ve got the final specs of your arm ready if you want to look over them with me.”

“Final what?” 

“Did I forget to tell you? I’ve been working on an arm to replace the one you have. I mean I get it it’s probably functional, but if it’s okay with you I’m not letting HYDRA's D-list tech stick around for any longer than it has to. I think I got a new one finished, but you should have input. It’s your arm, Barnes.”

Barnes looked at him with a sort of awe. “You built me an arm?”

“Yeah. You wanna see?”

He smiled, and damn it if he wasn’t beautiful. “Hey Nat, can you-”

Nat sighed, having just pulled the cookies out of the oven. “Yeah give me a couple minutes to put them in a container.”

Tony whooped, and once Natasha had handed Barnes the Tupperware container full of cookies, they were on their way down to the workshop. Harley had opted to stay in the kitchen with Nat, perfectly content to let them work without him there. 

Tony wasn’t sure if he was happy about that or not. 

On one hand, his son wasn’t around to get hurt if something goes wrong. On the other, Tony has never worked with Barnes one on one before, and he’s not sure if he wants to start now. 

Barnes was quiet on the way down to his lab. Tony didn’t let people who weren’t Harley or Rhodey down here very often, and he knew it could be overwhelming. 

“I hope you like the future, Barnes, because I’m working on reinventing it from this room, outwards.”

Just then, the elevator door opened and Tony led the way through the next set of doors. JARVIS was still running simulations for a new Iron-Man suit, as well as projections of the arm next to the-

“Holy shit,” Barnes whispered. “You built an arm.”

“I did,” Tony confirmed. “It’s only a prototype, just to make sure it was to scale, the real thing will be ready a few days after you go over it with me and you’re completely certain you’re okay with it. Then we’ll start the process of putting it on you.”

He turned to Barnes, who couldn’t seem to contain his happiness. “It’s beautiful,” he breathed. 

Now it was Tony’s turn to smile. “Just you wait Wonderboy. You’re gonna love this. DUM-E, please step forward and help display the arm to Mr. Barnes.”

The little bot raced into view, startling Barnes. “What- who-” he stuttered. 

Tony had mercy on the man. “That’s DUM-E. Built him when I was around Harley’s age, give or take a few years. He’s ridiculous and clumsy, but I love him like my own child. Which he kind of is so,” he trailed off. Barnes had walked up to the little bot and was cooing at it. 

He had to remind himself of why they were here. Of what the arm represented. 

JARVIS enlarged the hologram of the arm as if reading his mind. “So,” Tony started, “The two big things about this that I want you to focus on are how the arm connects with the rest of your body. Notice how you can take this one on and off as you wish.”

Barnes nodded along with him, captivated by the lights in front of him. 

Next, Tony held out his hand to the man. “Do you mind if I-” 

“Huh? Oh yeah sure.” Barnes held out his arm - the one attached to him still - for Tony to inspect. 

Tony was willing to admit that he absolutely wanted to get his hands on this arm. HYDRA or not, the calibration plates were a work of art. However- 

“Notice how heavy your arm is,” he said. “Pick up the new one- yes Barnes you can touch it,” he responded to the look of fear mixed with curiosity on his face. “Seriously, pick it up. The weight difference has got to be noticeable.”

Barnes marveled at the arm, and Tony didn’t blame him. He’s put a lot of work into the damn arm, and he’d be excited if he was seeing it for the first time. “There’s a bunch of other little things like the durability, flexibility, calibration speed, strength, and overall design aesthetic, but you can take your time looking over it. I’ll just be over there while you inspect it. I want all your notes, good and bad, okay?”

He nodded and started manipulating the specs to better see the full arm, and then compared it to the physical copy. 

Once Tony was satisfied that Barnes could handle himself, he went back to another workstation and started messing with little parts. 

~~~

Barnes came over to him while he was soldering a circuit board for what Tony _hoped_ he could eventually turn into a solar powered coffee pot. 

“You’re a genius.” It was a statement.

Tony flipped up his welders mask. “That does seem to be the general consensus, yes.”

“You said you built the future here. All this,” he gestured around the room, “is you.”

“Sure is, Barnes.”

“And you chose to build me an arm instead of inventing more things. Why?”

“Well,” Tony took the mask all the way off as he contemplated how to best say this. “Barnes, draw up a chair. I’d rather we both be sitting for this.”

Barnes found a stool at a nearby table and sat down across from Tony. 

“First, I just want to say I didn’t do this to win any favors. I’m aware that I can’t buy friends with gifts. That’s not what this is.” He paused for a moment to collect his thoughts. “When the Battle at the Triskelion happened, a lot of information was released. I went through the files myself to make sure no one felt like they could hide anything from me. I’ve trusted people before, and the last time I did, I ended up half dead in the middle of the desert. I hate to think what could happen if I let my guard down again.”

The man across from him just stared intently, not really responding. 

“I came across a file labelled with my father’s name. Howard and I never had a good relationship, but I figured if HYDRA had info on him, I should probably look at it. What I didn’t expect was to watch my parents get murdered, that arm front and center. Howard might have deserved it, but my mom didn’t. Edwin Jarvis didn’t either. I knew when we brought you in, I would have to deal with the arm, so I built one.”

Barnes looked at the floor. 

“It’s also important to me that you know I don’t blame you. HYDRA was at fault. They destroyed you and replaced you with that arm. Something more weapon than human, and I could not in good conscience let anyone live with those memories anymore. I suppose you could call it selfish, it is I’ll admit it, but you don’t deserve that either.”

After a beat of silence, Barnes held out the tin of cookies. “You can have first pick,” he said. 

Tony took one, chewing slowly. 

“Thank you Tony. It really means a lot.”

This time it was Tony’s turn to nod. “Any notes for me?” he asked,

He shook his head. “Not really? I love the design, and the color isn’t overwhelming. I’m okay with it.”

Tony smiled. “Great! I’ll get talking to Helen Cho and hopefully we’ll be all set to replace the arm next week.”

Barnes gave him a quiet smile and excused himself quietly, leaving Tony to start prepping. Right before he reached the door, he turned around. “You know you can call me James, right?”

“Sure Barnes. Whatever you say.” 

Tony went back to work, barely aware of the door shutting behind him. 

~~~

“What do you want, Steve?”

Steve had finally managed to catch up with Sam in the conference room a few days later. He hadn’t answered the text message, and it had been even harder to cross paths with him in the common area. 

“I want- need to apologize to you.”

Sam only hummed and went back to sorting paperwork. 

“Look I’m sorry it took me a while to figure out what I did to upset you, and I think I know what it is, and Sam I should never have done that. I don’t want to make excuses and say I was just excited, because sure I _was_ , but I would have wanted to do that anyways. I should never have pushed myself on you without asking first of all, but I miss you Sam. I want to make this better, and all I want to do is talk this out.”

The sound of paper rustling had stopped as Steve spoke. 

Sam sighed. “Fine. Let’s talk. Not out here. Upstairs. This was the last of today’s work anyways.”

He handed the stack of papers off to one of the assistants nearby, and walked towards the elevator. “JARVIS, take us to my floor if you don’t mind,” he said once the doors had closed behind them. 

Once they reached Sam’s floor, he shrugged off his jacket and hung it on a chair. “Steve, I don’t care whether you were excited or not. I don’t care if you wanted to or not.” He sat down at the dining room table. “You scared the fuck out of me because there was no way in hell you were clear headed when you did it. You were panicky and a tornado and all I wanted to do was get swept up in it and go with you. But you were going through a lot and I couldn’t do anything. I’m glad you’ve processed your shit and all, but I can’t go that fast.”

He looked up and Steve, and he felt himself deflate. “I’m sorry Sam. I-” he struggled around the words. “You’re my best friend. I feel like I can’t lose you.”

“I know Steve, I know.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Sam got up again. “It’s been a long day. Do you want to order take out and watch a movie?”

Steve breathed a sigh of relief. “Chinese?”

“Whatever you want, man.”

“Then can I have you?”

Sam froze halfway to dialing the number for the restaurant. “What?”

“Sam, I wasn’t kidding about wanting to kiss you. Sure my timing sucked, but I really like you. And if you’ll have me, I’d like to go out with you.” 

The air felt electric, and Steve held his breath. 

“Fucking shit, Steve. You really do have a way with words. Yes, I’ll go out with you. In fact, this is our first date. You’re paying since you’re such a pain in the ass, but if this goes well, I will consider kissing you again.”

Steve’s smile could have split his face in half if it was any wider. “Anything you want, my dove.”

~~~

The date went perfectly, and Steve couldn’t believe how right it felt to kiss him. 

“I wish I hadn’t been a complete mess the first time I did that. That would have been a better memory, but this works fine too.”

“Shut the fuck up, you moron.”

Yeah. Steve was over the moon. 

~~~

“How’d the surgery go?” Harley popped up by his side moments after Tony walked out of the surgical suite. “Is James okay?”

“He’s fine, _bambino_. He’s resting now. Give him a few hours, and then we’ll go check in on him okay?”

“Okay.”

~~~

A few hours later, they were all excited to go in and see Barnes. Steve, Sam, and Nat were going in first. Harley, Clint, and Bruce decided to hang back a little in order to not push too many people on him at once. Tony was hesitant to go in at all, but he couldn’t ignore the need to make sure the arm was working. 

After Harley got in a last little bit of conversation, Tony came in. “How does the arm feel?” he asked. 

“Like a dream come true,” Barnes responded. “Thank you Tony. I love it.”

“Have you tried the dexterity yet? It should be precise enough to weave even the most delicate of yarn.”

“Well I don’t have yarn, but it feels good to move. It feels more human.”

“Good.”

Neither one of them said anything for a few minutes. Tony didn’t really know where to go from here.

“I supposed I should let you rest a little more. I imagine you’ll be good as new by tomorrow, but you still need to sleep off the last of the anesthesia okay?

Barnes nodded and leaned back into the hospital bed. 

Tony started to leave, but Barnes’ voice stopped him. “You really are a genius you know. Thank you for using your skill to help me.”

He smiled. “Anytime.”

Looking back one last time, he couldn’t help but notice how peaceful his face was. 

“Goodnight James.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoops I forgot Clint existed for a hot minute but it's fine I'm fine this is fine  
> anyways, if want to shoot me a message, leave a comment or go straight to my [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/playboyphilanthro-pissed)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the new arm is installed, Tony warms up to the idea of James being around. James doesn't always know how to approach new situations in this century, but he tries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haaaaa okay I can explain:  
> 1\. I had 4 mental breakdowns on friday and it wasn't a great week in general  
> 2\. this is short because I needed like... a transition chapter? sort of? I'm gonna get a lot more into relationship arcs in the next few chapters because the boys need to grow, but I also needed to give them a place to start  
> 3\. a lot of this chapter can also be explained in Keeping Keener, which is a part of this series and explains part of Harley's past

“Well that's not... right.”

“What’s going on детка?” James looked up to see Harley- “Are you on fire right now?”

“Apparently.”

James sighed and grabbed the fire extinguisher sitting next to the closest workbench to put him out. “Kid, I don’t know why your dad lets you work alone, but clearly you shouldn’t be allowed to.”

“I’m not dead yet,” Harley told him. 

“Yet, Harley. The key word is ‘Yet.’”

James had been living at the Tower for a little over a month now, and his favorite parts of the building were the labs. The tech was beautiful, and watching Tony Stark himself build things was probably the greatest thing that had ever happened to him. 

However, he understood that Tony wasn’t totally comfortable with his presence yet. Harley’s lab was easily just as interesting though. The kid was a lot like his dad, and James hadn’t minded being adopted by him anyways. It was nice to see someone with so much potential for greatness care so much. 

Harley huffed, staring at the charred sleeve of his sweatshirt. “That’s annoying.”

“Be glad it wasn’t your arm, Harley.”

Oh yeah. Apparently he’s developed a parental streak too ever since he learned the kid was a little too good at being destructive to himself and his surroundings. 

“JARVIS told me there was a fire?” Just then, Tony stepped off the elevator. “Harley James, I told you to stop burning the Tower down. I have to go to a meeting. What did you even do?” he asked. “James, what did my son do?” 

“The project he was working on sparked and it caught his sweater sleeve on fire. I put it out, don’t worry.” 

Tony smiled at him in relief. “Well at least he has you around when I can’t be.” He turned to look at Harley. “ _Bambino,_ please behave once in a while. I’ll be back for dinner. I think Sam is cooking tonight.”

“So have the pizza place on stand-by?”

“Yep! All he can cook is eggs, I swear to God. Anyways see you later. Don’t kill James or yourself!” he yelled as he stepped back into the elevator. 

Harley sighed, looking at his sweatshirt leave once more before just rolling it up and continuing on with his work. 

James allowed him to work in silence a little longer before speaking up. “Your middle name is James?”

He laughed. “Yeah. Dad picked it out.”

“Oh. Did you know him well?” He wasn’t entirely sure how sensitive the topic of Harley’s biological family was.

“Who, Tony? James, he just left. I know him just fine. Wait do you mean Rhodey? Because I guess I don’t know him super well since he’s gone a lot, but I get along with him just fine too.”

“Wait, _Tony_ gave you your middle name?”

“Yeah. Audrey was a horrible middle name to have.”

“Isn’t that a girl’s name?” James asked. 

Harley stopped working for a moment to consider him before getting up and grabbing a StarkPad off the desk. “James, how familiar are you with the gay community?” he asked slowly. 

“I’d like to think I’m fairly well acquainted since I’m gay.” 

He blinked once. Twice. “Right okay sure why not. What do you know about transgender people?”

James thought for a moment. “I don’t think I know that word.”

“Right okay cool.” Harley seemed more fidgety than normal.

“Детка, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, James. Just,” he tapped something on the screen of the device, “here.”

He handed James the tablet. On the screen was a glossary pages of terms he’s never heard before, the top one being ‘transgender.’ He read it over a few times and nodded. “Yeah okay,” he said. “I’ve seen this before. Didn’t know it had a name though.”

Harley just stared at him. “And you’re cool with that?” 

“Yeah? Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I don’t- I’m not sure I guess but uh that-” he cleared his throat. “That’s me. Born in the wrong body and all that shit.”

“Swear jar,” James said, barely even thinking about it. 

Harley cursed under his breath before shoving a dollar into said jar. Tony had made them install it to try in order to ‘Promote better language. It’s a public image thing,’ or so he told them. 

“Harley, I don’t care what body you were born into. You’re a good kid, and everyone here knows that. I’m glad I know what this means now,” he gestured at the StarkPad, “but never feel like you can’t trust me with shit. I know I’m new to the Tower and whatever, but I plan to stick around, and I don’t ever want to make anyone here uncomfortable, especially someone as young as you are.”

The boy nodded, looking a little like he was about to cry. 

“Come here, младенец.” James held out his arms to Harley, who walked into them immediately.

“You would make a good dad,” he sniffled.

James only paused a little before he chuckled. “Sure, kiddo.”

~~~

The team dinner went as well as expected. Sam attempted to cook, completely failed, and they had to order pizza. Tony was late, citing a second meeting that had come up out of nowhere, but they saved him part of a pizza. 

It was a great night. They turned on a shitty movie and played board games until Bruce fell asleep and Clint almost managed to prank him before Nat shut him down. 

By the end of the night, everyone was sporting sleepy smiles and warm laughter. Nat was shaking Bruce gently in an attempt to wake him up, and Tony sighed, debating whether or not to do the same to Harley, who’d fallen asleep against James’ shoulder. 

“Don’t,” James whispered. “Let him sleep. I can carry him if you don’t want to, but the kid is tired and needs his rest.”

Tony nodded. “I could carry him, but I’ve been on my feet for so long I don’t know how reliable of a father I am right now. You’re sure you don’t mind?”

In response, James simply adjusted and lifted Harley as if he weighed no more than an actual baby instead of a teenager. Tony moved towards the elevator, trusting James to follow. 

“I’ve been meaning to thank you, by the way,” Tony says as the doors slide closed behind them. 

“What for?”

“For taking care of him I guess.” He signaled JARVIS to take them up. “I know I’m a mess, and I’m trying for him, but sometimes I don’t know how to raise a kid.”

“Tony, you raised him just fine. You pulled him out of a horrible situation, and he’s obviously your kid. You’re exactly what he needs, even if you don’t realize it.”

Tony dropped his head. “I know that, but Pepper is doing so well with Abby. It was weird adopting them separately, but they’re still siblings and they’re both gonna accomplish such great things, but she’s better at being a parent. She was always better than me anyways I don’t know what else I expected, but I almost wonder if I should have had her adopt both of the kids.”

James had met Abby a few times in his stay at the Tower. She looked a lot like Harley and had the same firecracker energy, but their talents clearly differed. Her political genius and problem solving skills rivaled Harley’s ability to build and code. They spoke two different languages, but things always seemed to work out. 

He also knew the story of the weird not-custody battle that had happened with the kids. They were still siblings, but Tony didn’t want to raise both kids on his own, so Pepper offered. News headlines had broadcast the heirs to the Stark Empire for months. 

Still, neither one of them parented better than the other. 

“I really wish you could see the impact you have on him when you’re not around,” he told him. “Kid’s got a good head on his shoulders, and he’s gonna change the world one day.”

Tony smiled softly. “Yeah I know. I can’t wait for the day he manages to completely outsmart me.”

There was a soft ding, and the doors opened out onto Tony’s floor. 

“His room is this way,” he said, leading James down a hallway. “Just in there.”

James walked into the room and shifted Harley so he could hold him with one arm. He pulled back a blanket and set Harley down carefully so as to not wake him up. Once he had tucked him in, he joined Tony back out in the hallway. 

“You’d make a good dad too, apparently,” Tony said.

“Funny, Harley told me that earlier.”

Tony laughed softly. “Don’t you dare take my kid, Barnes.”

He blushed. “Nah, he needs you doll. And you need him.”

Now it was Tony’s turn to blush. “Yeah.” They made their way back to the living room, and Tony sighed as he stretched. He stopped James just before he got on the elevator. 

“Look, I get it if you’re busy, but you should come down to my lab one of these days. We should run a diagnostics test on your arm, and I want to run a few other strength tests now that you’re starting to get used to it.” 

James nodded. “Is tomorrow okay?”

“Sure. You can pop in at any time just so you know. Bring coffee and I might even like you more.”

“You like me just fine, Tony.” The elevator opened and James turned to leave. 

“Stopping by doesn’t just apply for this once by the way,” he said. “DUM-E misses you for some damn reason.”

James laughed. “I’m sure. Goodnight Tony.”

“‘Night James.”

~~~

The elevator closed, and Tony was alone. 

He was also incredibly fucked. 

James was far too nice to him, and now that the arm was gone, Tony had been able to forgive him. Harley being comfortable around him had helped too, he supposed. Even the moment in the lab today had reaffirmed what Tony had already been thinking: he likes James Barnes. 

It didn’t hurt that he was fascinated with his tech, and he was polite as all hell to boot. He was a little quiet, but when he did speak up it never failed to make Tony smile. 

Tony wasn’t lying about DUM-E missing him either. The bot really liked the man attached the the arm it helped build. 

Being called ‘doll’ though… that was new.

Not unwelcome, just new. 

Honestly, it made Tony’s heart flip a little and he was not looking forward to thinking about that in the morning.

However, he definitely needed sleep if he was going to work with James tomorrow. It had been a long ass day, and some things cannot be survived on coffee alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please forgive me I am trying my goddamn best out here


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Star Wars movie nights and SamSteve shenanigans. That's the whole chapter sorry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOLY fuck it's been a minute. sorry guys it took me two weeks to write about Steve and James just Talking so yeah. we got it it's good lets see how bad christmas fucks me over

The first thing James heard as he walked into the lab was swearing that could put the Devil himself to shame. 

“Fucking shit, dumbass, if you even thinking about using that fucking thing, you are going _straight_ to the nearest community- _son of a bitch_ get back here you motherfucking piece of shit!”

Which is when a very frightened robot zoomed around the corner to use him as a human shield while his creator was in pursuit.

His creator who also wasn’t looking and would have run right into James had he not been there to catch him. 

“Doll, I know you’re upset, but you shouldn’t take it out on the things you built,” James said.

Tony simply blinked at him before realizing how close they were standing. 

“I should take it out on your arm for stopping me from destroying the fucker that keeps trying to spray me with a fucking _fire extinguisher_ , James.” 

“I’ll consider it, but only on one condition.”

Tony paused. “Okay, and what’s that?”

“Were you doing something that could have resulted in you needing to be extinguished?”

His silence was very telling. 

“You’re not killing DUM-E.”

Tony only grumbled for a moment before leading James off to somewhere deeper in the lab. “Most of the tests I need to run don’t require much from you. I can just plug you into a computer and make sure you work, but if you want to do a few motion sensor tests you can throw a tennis ball for DUM-E.” He grabbed one off of a nearby table. “He loves to play fetch.”

James only had to sit for a couple of minutes while Tony ran his arm through a digital scanner. 

“JARVIS, scan him while I run these numbers okay? James, go fetch.”

And so it began. The little robot was like a dog in both energy and attitude. Apparently he _did_ love fetch, and James was more than willing to play along. 

It honestly only felt like a few minutes before Tony was calling his name.

“I know you have super soldier stamina, James, but you need to eat. You’ve been playing fetch for a couple hours now and I’m not about to be responsible for any low blood sugars.”

“A couple _hours_?”

Tony laughed. “Yeah. This is why DUM-E loves you, Sugarplum. I might just have to keep you around.”

“Is that all you need me around for, dollface?”

Tony spluttered for a moment before responding. “Yeah well you make a decent baby-sitter too. Harley would be lost without you.”

“Aww Stark, with that attitude I’d almost think you were soft on me.”

“In your dreams, C3PO.”

“Who?” 

Tony blinked. “You haven’t seen _Star Wars_ yet? Seriously? We’re having a movie night. When are you free because we need to watch them _in order_ and no I do not mean chronological. We are watching them in the order they _came out_ in because otherwise you’re doing it wrong-“

“I’m free anytime, doll. Still not cleared for missions, remember?”

“Fantastic! I’ll text the team and see if any of them want to join.”

“Whatever you say, Tony. How’s the arm?”

“Oh it’s great. You seem to be adjusting to it pretty well, too. Any problems taking it on and off?”

“No. I might even keep it off more given the chance.”

“Not that I’m going to encourage you to waste my work, but go for it. I’m proud of you, James.”

James’ cheeks flushed a light pink at the words. “Thank you, Tony. Means a lot.”

“And you call me soft,” he laughed. “Cute.” 

Tony stepped a little closer as he spoke, looking at James like he’d done more than just give his arm up for inspection. He felt himself flush a deeper red, before ducking his head and muttering something that sounded like “shut up” under his breath. 

“Just text me what time you want to watch ‘ _Galaxy Wars’_ or whatever you called it. I’ll be there.”

“It’s _Star Wars,_ James, but yes I will text you. And I meant what I said last night, by the way.”

“What’s that?” James asked. 

“That you’re welcome here. Seriously, I don’t mind the company.”

“Yeah okay. See you later, then?”

“You bet. Bye, James.”

He waved on his way out the door, and managed to walk all the way into the elevator before banging his head against the wall. 

_“Are you alright, Sergeant Barnes?”_ asked JARVIS, noting his apparent distress. 

“I’m fine JARVIS, just very, very gay.”

The AI made a mechanical humming sound as it directed the elevator to his floor. _“If I may sir, I hope I am not out of line, but Mr. Stark generally uses the term ‘bisexual’ to describe himself, if we are discussing sexual orientations.”_

James looked up at the ceiling and groaned. “You’re not out of line JARVIS, but that’s not going to help me any if I can’t figure my own shit out.” 

_“Understandable, Sergeant.”_ The elevator opened, and James walked into his living room. _“I would, however, recommend you check your phone. It may not solve your problem, but it still may prove useful.”_

Sure enough, James checked his phone and saw a notification from Tony. 

**From Tony: Movie night 7pm on the common floor. Wear your softest pajamas and don’t be late. We will be watching as many Star Wars movies as we can until you or I fall asleep.**

James wasted no time in sending back a response. 

**From James: yeah okay. see you then :)**

He sighed and set his phone down on the end table next to his couch after he checked the time. It would be a few hours before he needed to make his way down, so he may as well make himself dinner and try to deal with his emotions first. 

~~~

“Honey, was that my phone or yours?” Sam called from the living room. 

Steve popped his head out of the kitchen. “I think it was both of them actually. Check for me?”

Sam got up and walked into the dining room, picking up his phone on the way. “Yeah, it was the Avengers group chat. Tony’s calling a movie night so James can watch _Star Wars_.”

“You think James knows it’s because Tony is halfway to in love with him?”

“Doubtful,” Sam snorted. “Not to drag on your guy, but I thought assassins were supposed to be genius-levels of smart. This is something else.”

“In his defense, he probably hasn’t experienced attraction in 70 years,” Steve argued. “Want to come stir this for me?”

“Sure.” He took the bowl from his boyfriend. “Can’t fuck this up.”

“Stop sulking, dear. Cooking is hard, you’ll get it one day.” Steve leaned over the kitchen counter to kiss his cheek. “Do you want to go to the movie night? I don’t know about you, but I’m down for watching those two be stupid if we get popcorn and movies out of it.”

“Yeah, I love _Star Wars_. Plus I feel like we’ve barely seen the team since we started dating, and I miss Nat.”

“Oh I’m sorry. Is my love and affection getting in the way of your social life?”

“Yes Steve. Your love and affection _is_ getting in the way of my social life, thank you for asking.”

“Ah, shut up, you love me.”

Sam sighed. “I have no idea why.”

Steve glared at him. “You’re so rude. Come on, help me finish dinner so we can make it downstairs on time. I won’t let you fuck up.”

“Yes, sir.” He gave a quick salute and took up stirring the dish Steve put in his hands. 

~~~

“We’re having a movie night?”

“Yeah. _Star Wars._ ”

“In the right order?”

“Obviously.”

“Why?”

“We need a reason to watch _Star Wars_ now?”

“Dad.”

“Seriously kid, are you asking me, one of the founding members of this damn team, why we’re having a team movie night?”

“Dad.”

“Harley, I fail to see-”

“Dad!”

“What?”

“The pasta is about to boil over.”

“Oh. Thank you.”

Tony turned to the stove and worked to manage the mess that was attempting to be dinner. “Do you not want to watch _Star Wars_ , Harley? You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“What kind of question is that? Of course I want to watch _Star Wars_ . I just want to know _why_ you chose _Star Wars_.”

“James hasn’t seen it yet.”

“Ah.” Harley raised an eyebrow skeptically at him. 

Tony sighed. “Okay, clearly we’re not on the same page or you would not be giving me that look. Care to say what’s on your mind?”

“You like him,” Harley said simply. “You like him, and you’re trying to bond with him in any way you can.”

He regretted having kids. 

“Fuck.”

“Dad-“

“Swear jar, I know, but I think that was warranted.”

Harley considered for a moment before he started cackling. 

“Hey, no, stop that. Why are you laughing?”

“Only you dad. Only you could fall for a man like this.”

“You know what? Fuck you. When you start dating someone, I will remind you of this conversation because relationships are _confusing_ , and this is a lot, even for me.”

“Oh, I’m sure,” Harley snorted. “Need any help?”

“No, but dinner will be ready in 5 minutes so go wash your hands.”

“Okay dad.”

~~~

James made it down to the common area half an hour early. Tony wasn’t there yet, but Steve (and presumably by extension: Sam) was. 

“Hey.”

“Hey,” Steve waved in his direction. “Tony isn’t here yet.”

“Kinda figured.”

They lapsed into silence while James chose a seat and settled in. The silence only continued on after he sat down, and James started to wonder where Sam was. 

“So,” he said. “How’s Sam?”

“Sam’s good,” Steve replied. “He should be down soon.”

After another minute, the quiet started to eat away at him. 

“We should really-“ James started.

“I’m sorry,” Steve blurted at the same time.

“What?” 

Steve rubbed his face. “I’m sorry. I don’t know how to talk to you or even exist around you. Neither of us are the people we were in the 1940s.”

“No, I suppose we’re not. You’re a better man than you were then and I have a metal arm. It’s been one hell of a century.”

He laughed, the tension having broken slightly. “Yeah well, you’re still an asshole.”

“You’re still a moron,” James pointed out. “I don’t know how you managed to work it out with Sam.”

“Damn lucky, ain’t I?”

“Punk.”

“Jerk.”

The silence that followed was comfortable, easier. 

“Who’d have guessed.”

“What’s that, Buck?”

James glanced at him, the corner of his mouth quirking up at the old nickname. “That two of America’s most famous war heroes would be queer.”

Steve chuckled softly. “No, I suppose no one would have guessed. At least we're safer now.”

“It’s nice to not have to hide.”

Just then Tony walked in, chatting about something with Harley, arms waving to emphasize whatever point he was trying to make. 

Steve must have noticed the look on his face. “Go get him, tiger.”

“Shut up, punk.”

“Hey, the Greatest Generation is here!” Tony clapped his hands. “What did we miss?”

“Not much, doll. Just reminiscing about the old days, about who we used to be.”

“Oh fun.” Tony flopped down on the couch next to him. “We passed Clint on the stairs, which means he’ll annoy Nat into coming down in a few minutes and then we can start the movie.”

“Want me to get snacks?”

“Buttercup, you really do know the way to a man’s heart.”

“I’ll take that as a yes. Stevie, you wanna help me carry stuff?”

“Yeah sure.”

James walked into the kitchen and started gathering supplies to make popcorn while Steve busied himself finding candy. 

“I don’t mind when you call me Bucky, just so you know.”

“What’s that?” Steve asked. 

“I know you feel weird calling me James, and I’ve heard you slip up a few times. I’m not the Bucky I used to be, but I don’t mind the old nickname.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.” And he really was. James had expected the name to feel more awkward than it did, but it felt natural to cling to that part of his past.

“Okay. I’ll keep it in mind.”

They continued working in a quiet tandem. Once the popcorn was popped and drizzled with butter, James handed off bowls for Steve to balance on trays. 

As they prepared to carry them out into the living space, where loud conversations were starting to filter in from, Steve stopped him. “Wait.” He ran back into the kitchen. “Here.”

“What’s this?”

“Red Hots. Tony likes them in his popcorn.”

“Oh. Thanks.”

Steve smiled and nudged him out into the living room. “Don’t be stupid Barnes.”

“Hey now,” he warned. “I seem to remember you taking all the stupid when I left New York the first time.”

He grinned as Steve shot him a look. 

Tony glanced up from his seat and noticed them walk back in. He started making grabby hands when James got closer. James balanced the tray on his metal hand as he distributed the bowls, giving Tony his last. 

“Did you not get one for yourself?” Tony asked, noting the lack of a bowl in his own hands. 

“Must have miscounted,” James said. “I’ll just steal some of yours.”

“I hope you’re okay with Red Hots, because I’m not compromising them.”

James nodded, discreetly flipping off Steve who mouthed ‘I told you so’ as he swung an arm around Tony. 

“Sure doll. Ready to start the movie?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you need me, you can shoot me a message on [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/playboyphilanthro-pissed)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team calls an unofficial meeting to try and think of ways to get Tony and Bucky to talk to each other. No one counted on any visitors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a moment before I started writing this chapter where I was sifting through my old fics and realized I never put thor in as a character anywhere. like ever. anyways my writers block miraculously cleared up that night and here we are

Harley didn’t even flinch as a plate whipped past his head and embedded itself in the wall. 

“I need your help.”

“Harley-“ Steve cursed as he ran into the living room. “I’m so sorry! You startled me.”

“Did I not text you to ask if I could visit?”

“I-“

“He broke his phone,” Sam answered as he walked in. “I was actually just about to tell him you were on your way up.”

“Should I-“

“I’m gonna tell your dad later, don’t worry.” Steve went and retrieved the plate from next to the elevator. “Sorry about that.”

Harley looked back and forth between Steve and the plate. “Did you throw that at me?”

“Yes, I am so sorry I-” Steve stared at him incredulously. “I’m sorry. Did you not notice the plate flying at your face?”

“No?” Harley turned to look at the damage. “Last week Clint pointed out that I automatically side step when I walk through a door. I have a theory that it’s because I’ve gotten used to dodging dad and the bots, plus we live with people who are accident prone and startle easy. I just adapted.” He ran his hand over the newly made dent in the wall. “You should get someone to fix that.”

Sam snorted. “I’m gonna put a picture frame over it and label it ‘Steve thought a Plate could be his Shield’.”

Steve glared at both of them when they burst out laughing. 

After a few minutes, when Harley could breathe again and Sam had stopped wheezing, he remembered why he’d come up here. 

“Oh! I need your help.”

“Yes, what is it you needed?” Steve seemed grateful for the distraction. 

“It’s dad and James.”

“Oh god,” Sam groaned. “You’ve noticed it too?”

“Not just noticed. I got dad to admit he likes him, and honestly I’m sick of them acting sappy and not doing anything about it.”

“Yeah, Bucky likes him too,” Steve sighed. “He’s not exactly subtle.”

“What the hell are we supposed to do then?” Sam walked into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water. “Either of you want anything? If we’re working out a plan to deal with these morons, we'll probably be here a while. Actually someone call Nat, she’ll want to be involved.”

10 minutes later, Harley was sitting on the floor of Steve and Sam’s living room with his back against Nat’s legs. Clint had come with her, and he had taken up residence on the back of the couch, coffee mug in hand. 

“So. We’re calling this unofficial team meeting to discuss how to deal with the idiots we live with.”

“Oh thank fuck, we have got to stage an intervention,” Clint groaned. 

“Absolutely true,” Steve intoned. “The question is how?”

“It’s gotta be obvious as hell,” Sam pointed out. “They don’t exactly respond to subtle cues.”

“Jamie gets overwhelmed really easily though,” Nat countered. “It’s not like we can blast a megaphone in his face and say ‘Hey, Tony likes you, dipshit.’ He’ll panic and run off.”

“Should we just start nudging them towards each other?” Harley asked after the room had gone silent for a moment. “Like offhand comments about relationships, unprompted shovel talks, that sort of thing?”

“We’re kinda doing that already,” Steve said. “Even Bruce started mentioning them to each other intentionally.”

“Oh dear God, it’s  _ really  _ bad if even Bruce can’t deal with it.” Clint sat up suddenly, almost spilling his coffee. “Where is he anyways?”

“He’s with Bucky,” Steve answered. “JARVIS is recording so he has notes about this.”

“More blood tests?” Harley asked. 

“No, they’re friends now. Gardening buddies.”

“Cute.” Nat kicked Harley’s side to get his attention. “You said you got your dad to open up about it, right? What’s he saying?”

“Cheesy shit mostly. Wants to show him the best of the 21st century. Movies, tech, the whole deal. That and I’m starting to feel like I have a second dad.”

Sam buried his head in his hands. “Jesus Christ.”

“You can say that again.”

Suddenly the elevator dinged open, and all their heads whipped around to see who it was. 

Bruce walked out of the elevator, stopping when he noticed them staring. “What’d I miss?” 

None of them said anything. 

“Is everything… okay?”

“Bruce?”

“Yeah Steve?”

“Where’s James?”

“Oh, he ran off somewhere with Tony. No idea where or why but he was so wrapped up in trying to get James to come with him that I’m not sure he noticed me in the room.”

The room let out a collective sigh, and Harley let his head hit Nat’s leg. 

“Well, I hope you have suggestions on how to get their heads out of their asses.”

Bruce groaned. “That’s what this is about? It’s literally going to take a miracle for that to happen.”

“We know. We’re gonna try to at least push them towards a miracle,” Sam told him. “Sit. We’ll do our best to catch you up and then hope to god we can-”

_ Boom _

The room shook with the force of the sound. Nat flew out of her seat and pulled Harley behind her as the rest of them ran to defensive positions. 

“What the hell was that?” Steve walked to one of the floor to ceiling windows and began scanning the horizon. “Oh my god.”

“What?” Harley asked. 

“Thor?” Clint asked. 

“Fucking Thor.” Steve answered. “Well, we should probably go meet him.”

Clint held up his hand to get their attention. “Has James met Thor yet?” 

The room froze in mute horror. Nat’s eyes got wide. “Bruce, when was the last time Thor was here?”

“A month before the Triskelion.”

“Well,” Harley sighed, already stepping into the elevator, “this oughta be fun.”

Nat, Sam, and Clint stepped in with him. “Steve, get Bruce up to date, then come down. It’ll look weird if we all go down at once. If they don’t get their heads out of their asses soon, I might kill them,” she added. “See you in a minute.”

~~~

_ Boom _

Tony didn’t have time to react before James moved to protect him from whatever made that sound. He was just trying to drink a cup of coffee while he went through the history of Stark Expos with him, something Steve had let slip he’d had an interest in back in the 40s, when whatever the hell that was blew through the building. 

He’d worked hard on pulling the information together, and he’d been excited to show James what he’d dug up. Now he wanted to kill whatever decided to do a scarily accurate impression of a sonic boom outside. 

“What the hell was that?” He shoved past the wall of a super soldier in front of him. “I spilled my coffee and it interrupted my sentence. Legal ramifications be damned, I am not afraid to sock someone upside the jaw.”

“Антошка-” James attempted to pull Tony back.

“Sugar, we can talk about your protective streak later, but coffee typically means more to me than my life so I’m gonna go commit a murder and then I’ll meet you back here okay? Okay.”

James didn’t look particularly happy about it, but he let him go, so Tony considered that a win. “Want me to come with you?”

“Whatever floats your boat, Terminator.”

They didn’t make it to the elevator. 

Tony sighed when James yanked him off his feet. “Babe, we need to have a conversation about how much you try to protect me. I’m a fucking superhero. I think I can handle myself.” He nodded towards the giant who caused James’ panic. “Hey Hammer Time, nice to have you back on Earth.”

“You know this guy?”

“Have I been gone so long that you’ve acquired a partner, Anthony?” 

James squawked.

“What? Thor, this is James Barnes. James, meet Thor.” Tony gestured between them

“What, like the Norse god?”

“Didn’t Captain Rogers mention a Barnes from back in the 40s?”

Tony sighed yet again. “The answer to both of those questions is ‘yes’. We found out that Barnes was still alive a month or so after you left Earth last time, and we brought him in as soon as we could find him.” He turned to James. “Did we not tell you we work with gods on occasion? Like, no one thought to mention that to you?”

He shook his head.

“Remind me to add that to the orientation packet then.”

James nodded, still eyeing the god warily. 

The elevator dinged open. Clint waved at the god and Sam introduced himself as they made their way into the living room. Harley high-fived him on his way past, and Nat walked into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee. 

“So this is what was making all the noise?” she asked.

“Seems so.”

Nat held up the coffee pot and Tony handed her his mug to refill. 

“How’s space?” Sam asked. 

“There have been no more disturbances than usual. I’ve tried to put a tracker out on Loki, but you know how he can be.”

The group all muttered in agreement, with the exception of James who looked thoroughly confused. “I’ll fill you in later, Snowflake,” Tony whispered.

“A number of things seem to have changed this year, and I’d like to know of them. But before we get into more serious matters, tell me how this coupling has come to be.” He motioned towards Tony and James.

Tony swatted the back of Harley’s head when he snickered. “We’re friends, Thor. Sam and Steve are a different story though,” he deflected. There wasn’t time to panic about his own love life with a god in the room. 

“And where is our good Captain?”

“Here, Thor. It’s good to see you buddy.” Steve strolled out of the elevator and clapped Thor on the back. “I see you’ve met our new team members then.”

“And your bedmate, as it would seem.”

“Well I-” 

“Hey! Someone get a picture of Steve’s face!” Tony shouted. “That’s the exact color I’ve been looking for to build a new Iron Man armor.” 

Clint snorted. “We ain’t judging you, Cap. Thor made an observation is all.”

“An accurate one at that,” Sam muttered. Steve glared at them. 

They were spared the beginning of an argument when Thor noticed Bruce in the room. Tony wasn’t sure when he filed in, but the man was so focused on whatever formula he was studying that he barely took notice of the rest of the room. 

Which is exactly how Thor managed to walk out in front of him without him noticing. 

“Doctor Banner,” he greeted. “It’s good to see you again.”

Bruce looked up at him and blinked. “Thor. Hi.” He glanced between the god and his work. “It’s um, it’s good to see you too.”

The rest of the room seemed to be on the same train of thought based on the wide eyes and urgent looks.  _ Thor and Bruce? No fucking way. _

“If you do not have too much work to do, and if it is no trouble, we should pick up on our last conversation. I’ve seen many more things outside of this galaxy that may help you to understand what we spoke of then.”

His eyes went wide. “I, um, sure? I mean this isn’t super important if you want to? We should, um. My lab?” He started towards the stairs with Thor right on his heels. 

After they left, the room went silent for a full minute and a half. 

“You guys saw that too, right?” Sam broke in first. “Like that  _ did  _ happen, correct?”

“Uh-huh,” Steve replied, too dumbstruck to say anything else. 

“What? When? When?” Tony gestured wildly. “I have known Bruce for how long? I have never once heard his voice do that.”

“And did you see the way Thor was looking at him? Jesus Christ, that’s the same dumbass look Steve gets on his face when he’s looking at Sam.” Steve flipped Clint off. “Just sayin’ man, you look that stupid too.”

Harley was cracking up. “Did you not see Bruce’s face? I thought the poor guy was gonna burst a blood vessel the way he stopped breathing for a second.”

“Oh my god.” Nat was grinning like a maniac. 

“Nat please god tell me you know what’s happening here,” Tony said. 

“I do actually. I completely forgot about it because I kind of thought I was dreaming but I think-” she looked at them in awe- “I think I know what happened.”

“Don’t be shy, woman!” Sam punched her arm. “Tell us!”

“So, remember last time Thor was here?”

“Yeah,” Steve nodded. “There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary about it was there?”

“Well no, but one night I couldn’t sleep and I was just walking around and I ended up down here, I guess. There was a projection of the universe on the ceiling, and I saw Thor sitting on the couch looking up at it, but I heard Bruce talking. I swear to Jesus Christ himself that Bruce was lying on his lap, talking about the stars.”

“That wouldn’t have been the night before Bruce had that wicked hangover by chance?” It was rare that Bruce let himself drink, much less get full on drunk. Tony definitely remembered that morning.

Nat nodded. 

“They got drunk and talked about the stars?” 

Tony startled having not realized James was still next to him. 

“I mean, take away the alcohol and that sounds like the perfect date.”

James smiled weakly. “Can’t think of a whole lot better. Especially if you’re not from Earth.”

“Amen to that.”

Conversation was milling around the room again, and Tony bounced in his points with the rest of them. A debate was getting started about how Thor had even managed to convince Bruce to drink when James tapped his side lightly. 

“Hmm?” Tony turned to face him. He had to crane his neck to meet his eyes. “What’s up?”

“Yeah, I’m just gonna step out for a bit.”

“Everything okay? I can go with you if you’d like.”

His smile looked tired. “No, I’m just a bit overwhelmed is all. Gods and all that.”

Tony nodded sympathetically and took his hand. “Call me when you want to keep talking about the Stark Expo stuff, huh?”

“Sure, doll.” He moved quietly towards the elevator, trying to not draw the attention of anyone else. 

~~~

Harley still noticed, and his face creased with concern. “Speaking of space, I forgot I have to work on that prototype engine for a new moon rover,” he said. The others barely took notice, still talking about their shock from before.

“Going down?” he asked. 

James nodded and stepped to the side so Harley could stand next to him. 

“You okay?”

“They are… a lot to handle sometimes.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

He slid down the wall until he was sitting down. Harley moved to sit in front of him. 

“There are people from space now. And it’s normal to you.”

Harley shook his head. “Far from normal. Hell, most of us forget that he can just show up whenever he wants. Still scares the shit out of us.”

“But he’s. He has a place here.”

“Yeah,” Harley admitted. “He fought with the Avengers in the Battle of New York. Loki, the guy he was talking about, was the reason he was here for that in the first place. They’re brothers.”

“They’re myths.”

“Myths have to be based on something.”

James covered his face and sighed. 

“Hey. Look at me.” Harley nudged him with his foot. “Give me your hands.” He did. Harley took it and started rubbing circles into his palm. “Listen to me. The future is fucking insane. Aliens are real, and not even  _ Star Wars _ could have prepared us for what we would see when we found them. Some of them look like us, yeah, and even act a little like us, but that doesn’t keep it from being weird, or overwhelming, or so batshit crazy that you want to go scream your lungs out. Which I did the first time I met Thor, by the way, so like, I won’t blame you if you decide to go that route.” 

James laughed, but it still sounded shallow. “It’s not just that, although that’s definitely a part of it.”

“What is it then?” Harley was glad JARVIS could act of his own volition and had already paused the elevator. 

“Before you all found us, he just popped in and it scared the shit out of me right?”

“Did you try and protect my dad?” He was trying not to laugh. 

“Yes. Shut up.” His smile was a little wider. “It was just something he said. About him being my partner and I froze up. I couldn’t think.”

“James, there was a god in front of you. That’s more than okay.”

“I panicked. I panicked and I didn’t know what to say and your dad probably thinks I’m a moron and/or that I don’t like him and I don’t know where to go from here-”

“Hey, shhhh. Shhhh. Breathe. Breathe.  _ Breathe _ .” He crawled closer to him. “He’s not going to think any of that, I promise. Dad’s smart enough to realize you’re not dumb, and he won’t take it as an insult that you couldn’t say anything to that. If anything, he’ll just assume that it’s because of Thor being Thor, and you not knowing how to handle that.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Yes I do.” 

“But-”

“Hey, I think I know my own father. Just make sure you don’t pull away from him and I promise you’ll be okay.”

James didn’t say anything after that. 

“Do you want a hug?”

He nodded, and Harley moved so he was more or less sitting in the super soldier's lap, his arms wrapped around his shoulders. “It’s gonna be okay.”

“You know, for a kid who lights himself on fire at least once a week, you’ve got a pretty good head on your shoulders.”

“Hey! I don’t light myself on fire  _ that _ much.” He felt James shake underneath him. “Shut up.”

“Младенец-”

“Okay, okay, whatever man.” He got up and held out his hand. “I gotta go build an engine now.”

“Oh?”

“Yep, and I promise I won’t set myself on fire if you do one thing for me.”

“And what would that be?”

“Don’t forget what dad said about stargazing.” 

JARVIS must have started up the elevator again, because it opened into Harley’s lab, and he stepped off, not even bothering to look back at the stunned look on James’ face. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not even sorry. there won't be that many more chapters. hopefully


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bucky starts to recover some of his memories from his time with HYDRA, but this doesn't come without some interesting consequences. The Avengers fly out to Sokovia in an attempt to bring in what he says they'll find there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so I almost separated this into two chapters because I'm going to be real: this is twice as long as the rest of the chapters, but the flow was there so you get a lot all at once. that's also why it took so long to write because I had to get through some intense scenes here. enjoy!

“You okay man? You seem a little tense.” Sam dodged another punch. “Look I get wanting to work out, but can you please dial back the super soldier factor? I’m not Steve, so if you hit me that hard you might break my spine.” 

“Please. Steve wants to break your spine anyways,” James grunted. He dropped to knock Sam’s knees out from under him. 

Sam flipped, but still stumbled and fell on his back. “That is not the phrase you’re looking for.” He used his position to lure him into a false sense of security before putting him in a leg lock.

“They mean the same thing,” James coughed, holding one of his legs in place before somersaulting, causing them to break apart. 

“No, they don’t. That’s like saying ‘Sorry Daddy, I’ve been naughty’ instead of ‘Forgive me, Father for I have sinned’. One is a normal, socially acceptable sentence and the other makes me want to gag.”

“Really? Your relationship with religion is that bad?”

He was not proud of the noise he made in that moment, nor was he proud of how his shock distracted him from making an easy block. His stomach hit the ground and James pinned him until he tapped out. “That was not fucking fair.”

“You just need to focus up, Wilson.”

“Oh I’m sure that’s why you weren’t pulling punches.” He took the hand that James offered him and got to his feet. “Seriously man, wanna talk about it?”

“That’s assuming I have the words for it.”

“That bad, huh?”

“Words fucking suck. Wanna go another round or are you good?”

Sam laughed. “Get Nat to spar with you, dude. I’m gonna go ice my shoulder.”

“Weird way to say you’re gonna go cuddle Steve, but okay.”

He flipped him off on his way out, and he knew James responded in the same way. The door to the locker rooms opened, and before he could open the second door, someone caught his arm to look at the already forming bruises.

“Well you certainly look worse for wear.”

“Oh please, like you wouldn’t beat the shit out of me if you had the chance. Is it a Russian thing? Tell me it’s a Russian thing.”

Nat jabbed his side playfully. “James is beating up on you? Poor baby.”

“He still has more energy if you want to go a few rounds with him.”

“What is with the lovesick idiots here having so much energy? Jesus, I would rather die than deal with that shit.”

“Days like these, I’d call you lucky.”

“Days like these, I wouldn’t go in Tony’s workshop. Bad move.”

“Noted. Please go help Barnes work out some energy so he doesn’t kill someone.”

“Shouldn’t we get Tony for that?”

He snorted. “Yeah, trying to get him to talk about that is  _ asking  _ him to kill you.”

“Jesus.”

Sam sighed. “He’s not pulling punches either. I think he fucked up my shoulder.”

“Ice it with something that isn’t Steve’s chest.”

“Why are you two the same person? Fucking leave, asshole.”

She punched his arm - not the one James almost busted - and walked out onto the training room floor. By the time Sam made it out of the locker room, ice pack in hand, he definitely heard the sounds of hand-to-hand combat. 

~~~

“They thinking about signing off on you taking missions?” 

James looked up from where he was stretching to see Natasha walking towards him. “Therapist said within the next few months. Plus it never hurts to kick Sam’s ass.”

“Got the energy for another round?”

“Always.” He released a breath slowly as he got to his feet. She moved to the middle of the room, but he wasn’t quick to follow. 

“Scared Barnes?”

“Most men should be.”

She shot him a look as she seemed to relax. Anyone worth their salt would know she wasn’t, and James knew he was worth twice his. The pointed silence didn’t last long before they started throwing punches. 

“Shit!” She managed to immobilize his arm. 

“Asshole!” He held her in the air with one arm. 

“Fuck!” Her foot caught his temple.

“Ha!” He lost his grip and she hit the ground, already moving to put him in a choke hold.

“No.” 

“Rude.” She spun out of his grip from where he'd caught her ankle. “How’s therapy?”

“And you call me rude? It’s fine.”

“Do you remember?”

“Some. Do you?”

“More than you.”

This is why he likes Natasha. She knows what it’s like. They’d both been to hell and back with people who only wanted their bodies, but still had to deal with their minds. 

“Remind me to talk to Steve later. I have memories of a few HYDRA bases that they could probably take out.”

“You don’t want them to wait for you?”

“The sooner they’re gone, the better.” He grunted when she struck his side. “Plus it might go badly for me.”

She didn’t say anything, which felt like acknowledgment enough. 

They didn’t say much more, bar many curses as they tried to outwit each other, and after about an hour they were both worn out. 

Nat groaned. “Can you please just let me kick your ass so we can go back upstairs?”

“Really?”

“We have the same training, Barnes. Let me win and I won’t tell anyone you agreed to it.”

“We can just call it quits so no one loses? Why does one of us have to win?”

“I have a reputation and I intend to keep it.” She took advantage of his loosened grip and tackled him to the ground. “Call it.”

“Fine! I surrender,” he laughed. “You’re something else, you know that?”

“For that comment I’m telling Tony you lost like a bitch.”

“Hey wait no-”

She was already up and half way out of the room before he could get up and convince her to not do that. It’s not like he cared about Tony’s opinion that much. 

He sprinted across the room after her. “Please don’t.”

“I’m kidding, Jamie, don’t worry. I think everyone’s in the conference room if we want to head there after we change.”

They parted ways at the locker room and met on the other side where the elevator was. JARVIS took them up to where the meeting was being held. 

As they exited the elevator, James saw a holograph being projected from the middle of the table. He was too far away to see exactly what was being shown, but the closer he got, the more dread started to settle in his stomach. Nat opened the door ahead of him, and-

“Упавшая звезда!”

~~~

Steve’s head snapped to the door. He knew Nat was going to be late, that wasn’t the issue. He knew Bucky would be with her because he mentioned needing to talk to him earlier. 

When Thor and Bruce had approached him that morning concerning something related to Loki and New York, he hadn’t hesitated before calling a meeting. 

“Stones that rule the galaxy,” Thor had said. 

“These have to be important. We need to know what they are,” Bruce had reasoned. 

He didn’t ask where they got the projections. Tony looked like he wanted to break open the exact genetic makeup of them. None of them knew what to do or even how to start. 

Then-

“Упавшая звезда!” 

Bucky stood frozen, staring at the images. 

“James?” Tony asked. “You okay?”

“I know enough Russian to know that wasn’t you cussing at the weird space things,” Sam said. 

“I’m- I’m so sorry I-”

Steve managed to catch him before he hit the floor. He was starting to hyperventilate. Tony wheeled over a chair to guide him into. 

“Hey Snowflake, look at me,” Tony murmured. “C’mon sweetheart, give me something to work with here.”

His eyes were a little glassy, but he managed to focus on Tony while Steve got him a bottle of water. He held it to his lips. “Drink.”

Eventually his breathing slowed to where Steve felt like he could relax. He noticed the tension in Tony’s shoulders. 

“Can you tell me what just happened?”

Bucky took a shaky breath and pointed at one of the stones. “Where did you find that?” he asked. 

“My brother used one some years ago when he tried to take over Earth. In my search for answers, I found more,” Thor explained. 

“That one… упавшая звезда.” As far as Steve could tell, he was looking at the yellow stone. 

“Fallen star,” Nat said in awe. “I suppose it’s fitting.” 

“Do you know something about it?” Tony was kneeling at his side. 

“I-” He turned his attention to Steve. “I needed to talk to you about some of my memories from HYDRA. Bases that still exist.” 

“And?”

“And упавшая звезда is at one of them.”

“But how? Where did it come from?” Bruce hadn’t done much more than help Thor present the information, content to help Tony come up with theories about the objects.

“I don’t know,” Bucky admitted. “I wasn’t there long, and I wasn’t awake for most of it, but I passed it once. It was in a case and they were studying it. I heard whispers-” he pressed his palm to the side of his head- “I heard whispers of what, of  _ who _ they used its power on.”

“Who?” Steve felt sick. 

“Two kids. Twins. I don’t think they were older than 13 when HYDRA pulled them in with some sort of promise. Power, revenge maybe. Like I said, I don’t remember much.”

“Did you ever see the kids?”

He nodded. “A girl and a boy, late teens or early 20’s. Her hands glowed red. He was blurry.” He leaned into Tony who had started rubbing circles into his back. 

“Thor?” Steve turned to him. “Have any idea what that could be.”

“Anything could be possible.” The god grimaced. 

“Blurry could mean fast,” Clint pointed out. “Moves so quickly that he’s never really solid.”

“And a red glow? Could be an energy thing. Maybe it moves or controls something? Objects, minds?” Sam speculated. 

“What do we do now?” Nat asked.

Everyone was staring at him. Steve took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. “We wipe the base off the map. Go in, get the stone and the kids. It won’t be easy, and it will be dangerous, but we need to make sure no other stones fall into the hands of HYDRA, and I cannot in good conscience consider the idea of hurting those kids no matter if they have powers.”

“But how?” Bruce asked. “We don’t know what they can do or if we can stop it.” 

“We’ll have to be prepared,” Tony sighed. “If she really can control minds I think I can help with that, but you’ll all need to be wearing helmets.”

Sam looked unsure “You really think you can bring them in?”

“You brought me in,” Bucky remarked. “But these kids are angry and loyal. I was brainwashed. They joined HYDRA willingly. This will be a lot harder.”

Clint shot out of his chair. “What if we can contain the magic?”

“Are we capable of such a feat?” Thor asked. 

“Us? No, but I might know a guy. I gotta make a phone call.” He was out of the room, phone in hand, before any of them could say anything. 

“What the hell is he on?” Tony stared in the direction he had gone.

“You’ll see,” Nat told him. “He just knows people. I think I know who he’s talking about.”

He looked perplexed. “Fucking spy kids.”

Steve shook it off. “Buck, do you think you can remember where the base is?”

“You want an address?” He snorted. “It’s in Sokovia as far as I remember. Heavily armed.”

“Not a problem.” Steve regained the attention of the rest of the room. “Once we have a solid plan and means of protection, we plug in the coordinates, and bring ‘em down.”

“We’ll need time.” Tony looked at Thor. “Is there any way you can help me and Bruce prepare a containment unit for it until we know what we’re looking at?”

Thor nodded. “The Tesseract model will help in determining how to move forward.”

“We still have the scans from New York,” Bruce said. “We might have to send you on some space errands.”

“Of course.”

He turned to Tony. “You need help with the anti-mind control helmets?”

“Two hands are better than one.” He rose quickly before remembering Bucky. “Are you gonna be okay if I leave?”

The smile he gave him was weak at best. “‘Course doll. Go on then, have fun saving the world.”

He gave him one last pat on the shoulder before practically dragging Bruce out of the room. Thor followed shortly behind them, and Nat made some comment about needing to go find Clint. 

Steve slumped into the chair at the head of the table and put his head in his hands. 

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you’d be the one who’d had the flashbacks to being brainwashed by HYDRA.”

“Thought we’d gotten rid of them back in the 40s. Then this year-” he stopped. “I’m sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry for, Steve. You didn’t know.”

He didn’t, but that didn’t stop him from feeling like shit. “I wish you could help us wipe them off the map.”

“Clint is a perfectly good sharp shooter. You’ll be fine.” 

“That’s not what I meant, Buck.”

“I know, but sentiments don’t matter so much when you’re ripping Nazi organizations out by their roots. What matters is you have a good team, people that you trust to get the job done. These guys would give the Howlies a run for their money.”

He snorted. “They sure would.”

“You okay?”

“I should be asking you that,” Steve pointed out. 

“I’m not the one who has to suit up and lead those idiots. I’ll leave you alone to prepare for a bit okay?”

“Okay. Promise you’ll tell me if you remember anymore bases?”

“Aye aye, Captain,” he saluted. “I’ll write them down along with any other notes I have about what you could find.”

“Jerk.”

“I’m serious, punk. HYDRA fucks with some real messed up shit. I’m not letting you or anyone else go in blind if I don’t have to.”

That was fair. “Thanks Buck.”

“Don’t mention it. I’m just gonna-” he gestured to the door and headed back towards the elevator leaving Steve to study the stones and create a strategy. 

It was going to be a long night.

~~~

James had yet to decide whether or not he likes the future. The technology is a big plus, and he loves learning about new things. Movies and music have changed, and he’s even allowed the luxury of reminiscing on the materials that were available in the 40s. 

He can’t see the stars. 

There was a sky garden on the roof of the Tower. He came up here when he couldn’t sleep. The smell of greenery was calming, and it was just high enough that the sounds of traffic weren’t overwhelming.

The mess in the conference room had left him on edge, so once it was dark he’d walked out to look at the stars. He had memories of Brooklyn in the 30s, crawling up the fire escape and sitting on rooftops in the summer. He could see the stars then. 

He laid down and watched the sky, watched for any glimmer of light from the heavens. 

All he could see was darkness as far as the eye could see. 

He wasn’t alone. 

“You’re not quiet, you know.”

“Not tryna be,” Tony answered. “Couldn’t find you. Wanted to make sure you were okay.”

James didn’t answer. He wasn’t okay, but he was tired of people worrying about him. 

“Stargazing?” Tony sat down on the ground next to him. 

He nodded. “Can’t see any. Makes you wonder, you know?”

“Hmm?”

“How many others fell.”

Tony chuckled softly. “I don’t know about that, but if you really want to see the night sky, I can take you to see it.”

“Really?”

“Well yeah. I mean ideally we’d cross the ocean. Rumor has it, the Sahara is great for stargazing. There’s options to stay in the US too, but go big or go home, you know?”

“You’d do that? I thought-”

“That I hated space?” Tony shook his head. “It’s so fucked up, I know, but I don’t. The thing about the wormhole that fucked with me was the alien spaceship I was launching a bomb at. It wasn’t like I was looking into the galaxy. I still love the stars like I did when I was a kid.”

“Don’t tell me you wanted to be an astronaut,” James teased.

“Hey, don’t look at me! Howard said Steve went into the ocean so I wanted to go the other way.”

He could have held back his laugh if he tried. “You haven’t changed a bit have you?”

“Never.” Tony grinned. “Turns out Steve isn’t so bad though.”

“If it makes you feel any better, both me and Steve would’ve socked the guy in the 40s had we been allowed to. He was a real annoying son of a bitch.”

“You have no idea.” They sat in silence for a few minutes before Tony spoke again. “We’re leaving in the morning, just so you know.”

“Sokovia?”

“Yeah.”

He nodded. “We can go see the stars when you get back.”

“Promise?”

James looked up to see what looked like the glimmer of tears in his eyes. It was probably just the lighting. “Promise. Be careful, please.”

“Make sure Harley doesn’t do anything stupid,” Tony countered. 

“I’m serious, Антошка.”

“So am I, James. I know he can take care of himself, but he worries.”

James sat up to look him in the eye. “I worry about you too, doll. Please don’t do anything reckless. I’ll know if you do.”

His face scrunched up in distaste. “You care too much.”

“You don’t care enough about yourself. Someone oughta.”

When Tony didn’t immediately respond, James scooched closer to him so he could pull him into a hug. He curled in against his chest, and James was hit by how  _ human _ his hero was. “It’s gonna be okay.”

“I wish you hadn’t gone through it.”

“But because I did, you can go and save other people so they don’t go through the same thing.”

“I know. Still sucks though.”

“Yeah. Until it doesn’t suck though, you have people to rescue and bad guys to get rid of, which means you need to get some sleep.”

“Might just fall asleep on you. You’re comfy.”

“Beds are also comfy,” he pointed out. “Don’t make me carry you like I carried Harley.”

“What if I  _ want _ you to carry me?”

James sighed. “Anyone ever tell you that you’re a little shit?”

“Oh yes, regularly.”

“Hmm. Fine.” He pulled Tony to his chest and tucked an arm under his legs before standing up. “Just because I know you’ll complain, I will let you have your way.”

Tony gasped and tucked his head into his shoulder. “Jesus, you’re strong.”

“You built my arm, you should know what it can carry.”

“Don’t be an ass. You’re still mostly human and I wasn’t expecting you to be able to do that so easily.”

He huffed, but prayed Tony couldn’t see his blush. Or feel his heart beating for that matter. They were pressed together and it was taking a lot to not freak the hell out. “You’re going to bed even if I have to put you there myself.”

“Promise?” Tony asked with a mischievous look on his face. 

“Tony.”

“You’re no fun.”

James rolled his eyes and carried him inside. “Sleep is important, doll.”

They made it up to Tony’s floor without further incident, and Tony pointed his way to his room where James dumped him on his bed unceremoniously. He didn’t really want to think about it. 

The sound of Tony’s voice caused him to stop on the way out. “Sure you don’t want to stay?” 

“We’ve been over this, Антошка. You need to sleep, and I don’t think you need me for that.”

“I might need you.”

“Sorry sweetheart, but I don’t make a habit of getting into bed with men I’m not dating.”

Tony looked him up and down. “My, my, Sergeant Barnes. Such a gentleman.”

“I try my best, Mr. Stark. Maybe I’ll just have to ask you out.” 

He became very aware of Tony’s sudden silence. Then- “Are you serious?” he whispered.

“I mean, I was kinda hoping- but only if you want to,” James managed to stutter out. “If you don’t want that I’ll just-” he moved towards the door, but Tony got up and grabbed his hand. 

“Hey. I want to. When I get back we can go out, okay?”

“Okay.” He breathed a sigh of relief before smiling down at him. “I’ll take you out to dinner, nice and proper.”

“And I’ll take you to see the stars after,” Tony said. “Just out of curiosity though, what’s your policy on kisses?”

“Not on the lips until after the first date.”

“My god, you’re too much.”

James rolled his eyes, but gave into his urge to hug him. “Stop complaining and go to sleep, idiot.” He pressed a kiss into his temple. 

“We’re leaving really early. I left a note out for Harley, but if he asks-”

“I’ll take care of everything here, doll. We’ll be here when you get back.”

Tony sighed. “Don’t worry too much.”

“I always do. Goodnight, sweetheart.”

Before James had the chance to pull away, Tony stood on his toes and kissed his cheek softly. “Night.”

James closed the door on his way out, pausing just outside the door to grin like an idiot and rub the spot where Tony’s lips had been. Their date couldn’t come soon enough.

~~~

“I’m starting to get too old for this.”

“Reconsidering your life choices, Barton?” Tony asked. 

“I can’t exactly say I wanted to do  _ this  _ for the rest of my life.”

‘This’ being touching down in the middle of a forest covered in snow that was infested with HYDRA freaks. 

Tony was starting to agree with Clint. “You ever thought of doing anything else?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I’ll open up a coffee shop.”

“I’ll send Harley to work for you.”

“Boys,” Steve pulled their attention back to the mission at hand. “Focus up. We’re going in together and then splitting into teams. Clint and Natasha, take the east side of the base, Sam and Thor take the west. Tony, you and I are below ground, and Colonel Rhodes will join us when he gets here.”

“Rhodey’s coming?”

_ “Bet your ass, Tones. S.H.I.E.L.D not existing is causing some real interesting bureaucratic issues for you people right now.” _

Tony couldn’t help but grin at the sound of Rhodey’s voice. “Wait, what do you mean ‘You people’?”

_ “Cap, I’ll let you field this one. See you on the ground.” _

Steve nodded and resumed giving directions. “There’s bound to be guards which means we’re running into obstacles the second we land. Everybody copy?”

An echo of ‘Yes, sir’ rang through the Quinjet. 

“Doctor Banner is coordinating from New York, correct?” Thor asked. 

“Yeah,” Nat answered. “He thought about coming, but he said he had a bad feeling about this one, and when Bruce speaks, I tend to agree.”

“He’s not the only one with a bad feeling,” Tony muttered. 

“We hit the ground in five minutes. Other than the space rock and superpowered teenagers, this is an ordinary run.” Steve secured his cowl and activated the safety feature Tony had installed. “Helmets,” he reminded the rest of the group. 

Clint and Nat had not been particularly thrilled by the addition to their costumes, but they understood it was a necessary precaution. Tony had tried to keep their helmets in line with their particular aesthetics, but he could only do so much in the name of protecting them. 

“30 seconds.”

Weapons were secured and visors were lowered as they prepared to land. 

Tony could feel the group take a collective breath, and the doors opened. 

After so many years of running missions, the Avengers ran like a well oiled machine. Well, for the most part at least. 

“Shit!” An alarm went off on his scanner when one of Clint’s arrows almost caught his armor. 

_ “Language!” _

_ “The kid isn’t here, Cap. Stark, that arrow wouldn’t have fucking gotten so close had you not moved.” _

“Listen here, Birdbrain, if I hadn’t moved I probably would have gotten shot by the HYDRA bastard you shot at!”

_ “Chatter!” _

“Tell Clint to not fucking  _ shoot me _ then!”

_ “Clint probably saved your life, Tony. Leave him alone.” _

“Traitor.” He would have glared at him, but Rhodey was on the opposite flank. “I’m picking up irregular energy signals from the base.”

_ “What are you thinking?” _

“Shields probably. Like a forcefield.” He sent a repulsor beam through the trees ahead of him. 

_ “Can you bring it down?”  _ Cap asked. 

“Rhodey?”

There was a split second of silence.  _ “How are we feeling about the Columbia Incident?” _

“Oh  _ hell  _ yes.”

_ “The Columbia Incident?” _

“Nat, if you and Hawks can have Budapest, we can have this.”

_ “Fair enough.” _

Tony zipped ahead to where he had a clearer view of the base. “Scan shows 20 life forms so we probably need to take out closer to 70 guards once this fucker goes down.”

_ “It’s like the summer of ‘89 all over again.” _

“‘89 was not that bad.”

He could almost hear Rhodey rolling his eyes.  _ “Whatever. On my count.” _

The force field was down in exactly 2 minutes and 19.3 seconds. “You’re showing your age, old man.”

_ “Hey, which one of us has a kid?” _

_ “How the hell did you two do that?”  _ Sam yelled. 

“Not ready for us, Wings?” It looked like his estimate on the guards was accurate. He and Rhodey took them out in batches. 

_ “Coming in top side T-minus 15.” _

“That’s what I thought.”

Lightning crackled as Thor touched down with Sam flying in behind. “How’s it looking?”

“Your best bet at getting into the west wing is the entryway over there.”

Sam looked at him like he was crazy. “That’s a wall.”

Then Thor put Mjönir through it. 

“...That works too.”

Rhodey snorted. 

“Cap, where are you?”

_ “Front doors are heavily armed. Nat just snapped three necks at once.” _

_ “Jesus Christ, Cap. Don’t sound so cynical.” _

They heard a crunching sound. Tony grimaced. “This is why you don’t have normal friends.”

_ “That checks out. Requesting backup for when the doors open.” _

_ “Copy that.”  _ Rhodey took one last shot at a HYDRA goon that tried to stand back up. He turned to Tony.  _ “Ready?” _

Together they took off for the main entrance of the building. They blasted the remaining guards out of the way without much trouble. “Cap, if you’ll do the honors?”

His shield went through the lock easily. The door slid open with little resistance, and at first glance, there was no one inside. The groups split up and started into the base. 

~~~

The underground part of the base looked suspiciously like a dungeon.

“At least they stuck to a design theme,” Steve grumbled. 

_ “Remind me what we’re looking for here?” _

“Something not normal.”

He could imagine Rhodey glaring at him from behind his face plate.  _ “I am literally begging you to be more specific, Tones.” _

Tony rolled his eyes. “How am I supposed to know what a space rock and the kids from  _ the Incredibles _ are supposed to look like? It’s not like we have a precedent for that!”

_ “We didn’t have a precedent for people who breathe fire either. It’s called using your imagination.” _

“Okay first of all: that’s a different ballpark and you fucking know it.”

_ “And second?” _

“I’m not explaining that we know what both fire and people look like. If you don’t understand that, you can leave.”

“Are you two done?”

“Never,” they both answered. 

“I will note for the good of the order however, that that wall should not be there.” Tony indicated the wall off to their left. “It’s about 15 yards short of where the building ends.”

“Can we blast through it?”

_ “It’s weight bearing,”  _ Rhodey answered.  _ “We blast it and the ceiling comes down on us.” _

“Great.”

Tony frowned. “JARVIS, give me Sentry mode please and thank you.” The suit opened up and he stepped down. “Watch my six, if you don’t mind boys.”

“But-”

He activated the hood he attached to his flight suit. “Do you think so little of me, Cap? Please, I thought of everything.” The wall looked pretty uniform, but there was no way there wasn’t- there it is. “Aha!”

_ “Like every bad spy movie ever.” _

A small door opened in the face of the wall after Tony located the loose stone that acted as a mechanism. It was just wide enough for him to fit through without the armor.

“I have to go in there.”

“Not alone, you’re not!” the Captain exclaimed. “What if one of the twins is in there?”

“What if the stone is? It’s a risk we have to take.”

_ “He’s right, Tony.” _

“Yeah, but so am I. We have limited options here, and this is our best bet.”

Neither one of them said anything. 

“Here,” he slipped in an earpiece. “Keep up a constant stream of conversation. Chatter is good when it keeps us alive.”

Steve closed his eyes. “Fine. But you let us know if anything, and I mean  _ anything,  _ goes wrong, got it?”

“Got it.” He pulled the containment unit Bruce helped him with from a compartment in the suit and squeezed through the opening. 

At first glance, it looked like any standard evil lair work space. Shady tools scattered everywhere alongside weapons, machines in varying degrees of disrepair, etc. etc. What caught his attention was the long table at the far end of the room. It’s surface was decidedly more organized than the rest of the place, and there seemed to be a spotlight on it despite the fact there were no windows or stable light sources. 

There didn’t seem to be any danger, so he approached. “Thought you boys were going to talk to me? Run out of conversation starters?”

_ “Just waiting on you, Stark.” _

“I see. Well, I guess I’ll start this conversation off. Rhodey, what’s up with the S.H.I.E.L.D bureaucracy shit?”

_ “Rumor has it the United Nations is going to get involved with regulating the Avengers since the only organization that had any power over you fell.” _

_ “That’s just great.” _

_ “Yeah, they’re just waiting for something big enough to happen so they have a justifiable reason to propose anything.” _

“Well that’s not ideal. How would that even work?” Tony made it up to the table and tapped the side of his glasses. “JARVIS, give me something.”

_ “Is there any way we can avoid it?”  _

_ “Unless you plan to never make a mess again ever, no.”  _ Rhodey told him. 

Tony considered this. “What if we got out in front of it?”

The other men seemed to pause.  _ “Do you have something in mind?”  _ Steve asked. 

“Maybe. I’m just thinking. It’s not that hard to create legitimate government organizations, plus if we got other people to run it, it wouldn’t look like we were just covering our asses.” JARVIS pinpointed a foriegn substance just to his left. 

_ “What, like a new S.H.I.E.L.D?” _

“Yes and no.” He got the containment unit ready in case it was the stone. “S.H.I.E.L.D always seemed like it was too focused on security and violence. The universe is massive, it can’t be all bad. Wouldn’t you want to focus on the progress that could be made from discoveries?”

_ “That’s a really good point. How would we do it?” _

“Remind me to email Pepper, but I’ve been talking to Maria Hill recently, and I know she would agree with me. So would your old neighbor, Steve.”

_ “Agent 13?” _

“Her name is Sharon, Cap.”

_ “Not you baby cousin Sharon?”  _ Rhodey clarified. 

“Cousin is a loose term, but yes.”

_ “I didn’t think you had any cousins, Tony.” _

“Peggy’s niece. She’d bring her around once in a while when we were kids. So yeah, we’re basically family.” He uncovered the object JARVIS pointed out and sucked in a breath. 

_ “Tony?” _

“You two are not going to believe this.” Loki’s scepter, the one he’s tried to use on Tony’s heart, held what must be the stone they were after. “It’s going to be a bit harder to contain than we thought.”

_ “Something we’ve-” _

The response cut off. “Uh. Steve? Rhodey?”

Neither one said anything. 

“Tony Stark.”

He whirled at the sound of a new voice. How had he not seen the girl come in? “What did you do to them?”

“Nothing. They are fine, but they will not disturb us either.”

“You can control time? That's your schtick?”

“In a way. That feels like an oversimplification” She seemed to consider him slowly. 

“If you want to kill me, you’re sure taking your sweet time about it.”

“My brother would want to see this. We both want revenge on the Merchant of Death.”

“Get in line, kid.” If she froze time, it was unlikely he would be able to get to the door without consequences. “I feel like I’m at a bit of a disadvantage. You know my name, but I don’t know yours.”

“Why should you care?”

“I need a reason? If we’re going to talk, I’d like to know who I’m addressing.”

“My name is Wanda Maximoff. My brother Pietro and I have wanted to face you since you killed our parents when we were 10.”

His chest hurt. The reminder that his past was still some people’s present made a part of his soul die. “I’m sorry.”

Wanda glared at him. “Is that all you have? ‘I’m sorry’?”

He took a deep breath. “I don’t know what else to say. I built weapons that killed more people than I can count. Doesn’t matter that I didn’t point them or pull their triggers, but the work I used to do, that my father did before me, is something that I regret every single day. People don’t come back from the dead, you just have to learn to live without them.”

“What do you know about loss?” she hissed. “You have your precious team, a family in it’s own right. What would happen to you if you lost them?”

Tony didn’t know what to say, so he focused on staying calm instead. 

“One day, you are going to lose  _ everything,  _ Stark. What will you do when your dear Captain lays dying at your feet? What will you do when you cannot save them?”

“That’s an interesting thing to say.”

She scoffed. “I would have rather shown you, but your head contraption is smart. I cannot penetrate it.”

He didn’t sigh in relief, but it was a close thing. “We’ve had some experience with mind control. I’d rather not let it happen again.”

“Like I said, smart.”

They stared each other down for a moment. “Okay, well if you’re not going to kill me, here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to put you in these cuffs-” he held up the magic handcuffs Clint got from Lord knows where- “and time is going to start happening again. Then I’m going to take you outside, and we can talk about what to do with you.”

“Would you cage me like an animal?”

“No, I just don’t think you belong here, and it might be the safest course of action to remove you from the situation.”

He took a step back when she started glowing. “You know nothing about me,” she growled. 

“I can make a few guesses. You’re broken, angry, and you want justice. The only reason you joined HYDRA was the assurance that you would probably get close enough to kill me one day, and who cares that their values are despicable if you have a shot at revenge? How am I doing so far?”

“Not bad for a sad old man who derives his value from his team. If your technology fails, you have failed. I should slice your Captain’s throat and leave him to die at your feet. I should have my brother bring me the rest of your team so I can give them all slow,  _ painful  _ deaths. And that would break you, would it not? And just before I would do the same to you, you would be faced with how the world would see you. You are weak. A man, not a hero. The world will fall, and you will be powerless to stop it.”

He tried to not show how affected he was by her words. “Well? What are you waiting for?”

This seemed to throw her off. “Pardon?”

“Why not get it over with? Go ahead. Kill my team and kill me too. Leave the world without the group of people best equipped to fight off the unnatural. Leave my son an orphan and my love in mourning. Then the world will see  _ you  _ for who you are, you absolute fucking coward.”

She was on him in seconds, screaming and yelling about how he was all that was wrong in the world. 

Why people never expected him to know how to fight without the suit was beyond him. 

He moved out of her way and knocked her off balance before pinning her to the table he’d been examining before she’d come in. “Scream all you want, but you’re wrong about me.” He latched the cuffs and dragged her to her feet. 

_ “-seen before?” _

Tony flinched. “Sorry Cap, what was that?”

_ “You said it was something we’ve seen before. What is it?”  _

“Oh.” That conversation felt like so long ago. “Yeah we’ve seen this. More importantly-” he walked the girl to the opening in the wall and pushed her through- “she won’t be hurting anyone else.”

Steve and Rhodey both shouted in alarm. “Tony, what the hell? Why didn’t you say something?”

_ “We agreed that you would tell us if someone was in there with you!” _

“She stopped time so we could talk. That’s not my fault,” he defended. 

Rhodey grabbed onto her so she couldn’t run away.  _ “I can take her back to the jet. Deal with the stone and I’ll meet you back there.” _

He picked her up despite her struggling and marched back the way they’d come. 

They watched them leave, and Tony went to duck back into the chamber before Steve caught his arm. “What the hell happened in there?”

“I didn’t see her when I went in. She must have been hiding somewhere. Apparently she tried to do the mind control shit, but the hood worked, so she stopped time and confronted me instead.”

“What did she tell you?”

“The same thing everyone else does. That I personally killed someone she loved. That I deserve to die for it.”

“Tony-”

“It’s fine, Cap. Don’t sweat it.” His smile felt wrong on his face. 

Steve frowned, but didn’t say anything to that. “What about the stone?” he asked. 

“Oh! You’re going to love this one.” He ran back into the room and picked Loki’s scepter up off the table and carried it back out with him. “Remember this?”

“You can’t be serious.”

“I know! Should we break open the staff and put it in the containment device we made for it?”

Probably,” Steve said. “Last I remember that thing had some nasty side effects.”

“Hold on.” Tony scanned around for a clear work space and- “There we are!” -a hammer. “This should do it.” The casing broke open easily, and he placed the container over top of it. Once it was secure, he brought both objects back out. 

“You’re bringing the scepter?”

He shrugged. “Maybe Thor can use it to find Loki. Here, hold these.” The suit opened back up for him and he stepped in. His com link came to life. “We have the stone,” he told the rest of the Avengers. “How’s everyone else looking?”

_ “We were right about the speedster. Took a bit, but we have him in cuffs,”  _ Nat returned.  __

_ “And you said stun arrows weren’t worth my time.”  _ Clint sounded decidedly smug about that. 

“Right. His twin is in custody too. Get back to the Quinjet as fast as you can and we can get out of here.” He watched Steve toggle with his com before speaking again. “Thor, buddy, you’re going to want to see this.”

~~~

Tony slumped into his seat after ditching his suit in the cargo hold of the jet. He could still hear Wanda’s words bouncing around in his skull. 

_ The world will fall, and you will be powerless to stop it. _

He closed his eyes and let out a shuddery breath. When he opened them again, he saw Steve standing in the doorway. “You okay, Cap?”

Steve shook his head. “What did she say to you?”

“She threatened to kill you. The whole team really, but I guess it shook me up more than I realized.” 

“Was that all? Our lives are threatened all the time, and I don’t think it’s bothered you this much before.”

Damn him for knowing him so well. Steve sat down in the seat across from him and studied him intently. “Tony, I’m not going to push you, but I’ve never seen you so upset about a conversation.”

“Maybe later, okay Cap?” He didn’t even have the strength to give him a press smile that might convince he was okay. 

Steve sighed, but let it go. “Fine. We’ll be back home in an hour or so. Do you want to be alone?”

Tony nodded and leaned back to look at the ceiling. He heard footsteps and the door sliding shut behind him, and when he was finally satisfied that it was just him, he put his head in his hands. 

_ The world will fall, and you will be powerless to stop it. _

~~~

Nat glanced up from her post in the pilot’s seat. “He okay?”

“I don’t think so,” Steve answered. “She said something that really got to him.”

“Did he tell you what?” Clint had his feet propped up on the controls. 

“Clint, I don’t think that’s how you’re supposed to fly a plane.”

“So he  _ didn’t  _ tell you. Good to know.”

“No, and he wants to be alone so don’t you dare go bother him.” He turned back to Nat. “Did you radio the Tower and tell them we’re coming in soon?”

“Yes. Bruce radioed back to let us know they got it. James told you to check your phone.”

“I don’t bring my phone on missions,” Steve pointed out. 

“Your  _ boyfriend _ brought your phone just in case something like this happened.” Sam handed it to him. “Honestly, how would you live without me?”

“Mmm, I’m not sure dear.” He leaned down to kiss him before he flipped through his notifications. There was a text from Bucky. 

**From Bucky: hey, let me know that you’re all okay when you get a chance**

Steve chuckled. Of course he was worried. 

**From Steve: We’re all good. I think Clint has a few scrapes and bruises, but it’s Clint so I don’t know what else we expected.**

He hit send and went to put his phone in one the pockets in his suit before deciding against it. Instead, he sent a little note about what happened to Tony. That was probably more along the lines of what he meant anyways. 

**From Bucky: good to know. thank you.**

This time he did tuck his phone away. He stared out the front of the cockpit, getting lost in thought. 

“Penny for your thoughts,” Sam nudged him a while later. “You’re getting broody, babe.”

“Just-” he hit the intercom. “Rhodey, Tony, if you’re okay to talk, can you get up here please?”

Tony opened the door seconds later. “What’s going on?”

Rhodey was right behind him. “Thor and the suit are guarding the twins. What’s wrong?”

“Sorry, this can probably wait, but I really think we should talk about this. The S.H.I.E.L.D issue.”

“Right,” Rhodey bobbed his head. “We had the beginnings of something before the girl turned up. What are you thinking?”

“We need more than just the bare bones of an idea if we’re going to present it as a legitimate organization.”

Tony pulled a StarkPad from seemingly nowhere. “Okay, talk to me and I’ll start getting shit together.”

Sam and Clint watched with rapt interest while they bounced back and forth. 

“Mind filling us in on what you’re talking about, boys?”

Their heads all snapped to Nat. “I never complimented the speech you gave on Capitol Hill by the way. Nice job with that,” Tony said. 

She nodded her thanks until Rhodey spoke up. “It won’t be enough to hold the UN back from trying to regulate the Avengers on their own terms. We need a new organization.”

“A new S.H.I.E.L.D?”

“Well, sort of. Similar in the way that it allows us to work in peace without worrying about foreign governments sending us to war, different in the way of literally everything else. Progress over security.”

“You got a name yet?”

Tony snapped his fingers as if he was thinking. “How do we feel about V.I.S.I.O.N?”

Sam raised an eyebrow. “Meaning?”

“Vital International Superhero Intelligence Organization for Neutralization.”

The room went silent. 

“Dude.” The impressed look Clint gave him was tinged with horror, and Steve couldn’t exactly blame him. 

“What?”

“How the hell did you do that?”

Rhodey snorted. “You didn’t have to listen to him come up with this shit in college. He’s just good at it.”

“That’s terrifying.”

“Do you not like it? I can rework it if you give me a minute-”

“Tony,” Steve put his hand up to stop him. “It’s fantastic. We can put a call into Maria, Sharon, and Pepper when we get back and start to get business in order.”

He tapped out a few more things on his device and looked back up. “Consider it done, Cap. A meeting will be scheduled for the moment everyone has the time.”

Steve nodded, confident that everything would probably work out okay. 

Nat cleared her throat and started fiddling with the controls. “5 minutes out. I’d recommend finding seats and strapping in.”

They all started shifting, Steve and Sam taking the seats left in the front of the jet while Tony and Rhodey went to stand with their suits. 

The New York skyline was a sight to behold as they began their descent. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to say there isn't going to be too much more of this, but last time I said that I wrote 8000 words. I can't make promises

**Author's Note:**

> come yell at me on tumblr [playboyphilanthro-pissed](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/playboyphilanthro-pissed)


End file.
